


Star Wars Episode VIII: A New Threat

by Lowkeywordplay



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Cussing, F/M, My First Fanfic, POV Multiple, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon, Slow Burn, Violence, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-06
Updated: 2017-03-19
Packaged: 2018-06-06 19:32:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 70,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6766981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lowkeywordplay/pseuds/Lowkeywordplay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“How could you have not seen it? Not only did you miss the scavenger but you missed the destruction of our greatest weapon” Snoke asked, rhetorically in his cool and controlled voice. It had been a month and yet Snoke was still furious. I haven’t seen the Supreme Leader this angry since… well I try not to think of the little one anymore. There were several seconds of intense silence, and then Raz spoke up, “We have sensed something, sir. Or rather someone” “Who?” Snoke questioned. “Vin, sir” Raz replied, pausing for a second and taking a deep breath before cautiously continuing, “We may need him”. There were several seconds of tense silence, in which everyone present awaited Snoke’s reaction. Eventually he turned to me and said, “General Hux, summon rancor squad’s team leader for me. I have a retrieval mission for them”. I quickly nodded and stood up, thinking to myself that for the first time since Starkiller’s destruction we may just have the upper hand.     </p><p>This story will have a lot of backstory and original characters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Vin Sadir

**Author's Note:**

> My brother convinced me to write this story. So here it is. I can't promise regular updates but I will finish it. I also apologize for any grammar or spelling mistakes I may make. I've written 9 full chapters so far, and I'll post them all so you can binge read if you want. Let me know what you think, even if you hate it.  
> Oh and one last thing force mind tricks will be put in Italics and other people's thoughts will be in bold, it'll be clear once you start reading

**_ Vin POV: _ **

                My name is Vin Sadir. I was born on Yavin 4, my village was small and filled with settlers just looking for a better life my mother was a traveler just passing through named Seva. I never knew her, she died during childbirth; they told me there were serious complications, later they would say it was my fault. My guardian was a Rodian, name Lisa; she was a cruel woman. We lived on the outskirts of the settlement, once a week she would walk into the market trading the produce she grew in her small garden for booze. She never let me play with the other children. She thought of me more as property than a child. She treated our massif, Rolf, better than me, said that he could actually be of use. I never held it against him. Rolf was my friend he always did what I told him to, sometimes I would just have to think. I would spend hours at night after she had drunk herself to sleep playing with him outside, having him pounce and rip apart the vermin in the woods behind our home. We would sleep under the stars hoping for our salvation.   

                I was six when it first happened, I swear it was an accident I was just felt such uncontrollable anger. She was beating Rolf because he had swiped half a bite of food from the kitchen table. It just made me so angry, she hadn’t fed either of us more than a few scrapes for days. The plate, it just flew across the room smashing into the cabinet beside Lisa’s head, I wasn’t anywhere near it. She screamed and then turned looking at me saying, “Why you ungrateful little nerf herder!” She locked me in an empty closet for two days. Rolf pawed at the door but I begged him to go, fearing she would hurt him for scratching that shitty door of our shitty home.

                Less than a year later, on my seventh birthday; Lisa was drunk and passed out on her bed. After all the neglect and abuse; feeling everything this woman had taken from me and would continue to take I turned to Rolf and said to him, “ _I wish you would rip her throat out_ ”. Rolf in turn looked at me, bowed his head and stalked towards her. Every step he took filled me with a growing sense of trepidation… or perhaps it was excitement. He crept forward, sliding his head along her pillow, hovering for just a second and then he tore into her throat. She didn’t even have time to scream. It took a full two weeks before any of the townspeople came looking for her by that time me and Rolf had dragged her into the woods. Later when they found what was left, they tried to take me to another family, away from Rolf. It made me angry, very angry. The pots, plates, and even a few knives flew across the kitchen like a blizzard. The townspeople left me alone then, in fact the never came back to the house.

                For the next two years whenever I would go to market, I could hear them whisper behind my back. I could hear them talk about my unnatural powers, the “force” I possessed. I even began to hear them when their lips didn’t move. I used that to my benefit, negotiating for the best price for the pelts me and Rolf made from the game in the woods, or what to ask for the produce from Lisa’s garden, or whatever other things of hers I had no use of.

                When I was nine men came to our village. They carried lightsabers and they came to tell me I was very special that I needed to go with them to the Academy. It was the best decision I ever made. They have taught me how to bring order to this chaotic existence.  

                I can still remember that night that they came to me. The village was dead quiet their ships landed farther out, lights off. I only saw them because Rolf and I were playing in the yard. The middle ship, larger than the other two, opened up its door the hydraulics nothing more than a whisper in the cool night air. Six people clothed in heavy cloaks fanned out, the two in the middle holding double-sided light sabers the others holding only standard one. At distance I couldn’t make out what species they were, then from the bowels of the ship proceeded another, his cloak darker than the night, his face withered with years and war. The other two ships opened up their doors and out came a battalion of white knights, holding blasters and standing to attention with such precision it was hard not to feel awed. I ran with Rolf as silently as I could back into the house as the knights encircled the village.

                I heard the pitter patter of raindrops falling on the roof, as I watched from the upstairs window as those seven cloaked figures walk towards my village. As they were about to pass by, one of them held his hand up and the came to a halt. They all turned towards my home, and I gulped down my fear as they began their approach. I was expecting something, anything other than what occurred. As they reached my door, I heard a knocking. It wasn’t hard or harsh but polite, so unlike anything I had ever been used to. My curiosity peeked, I took Lisa’s old blaster and tucked it into the back of my pants. I reached the door and after making sure Rolf was beside me I opened it. Six humans entered holding their lightsabers at their side and wearing serious expressions. Then walked in the man with the withered face and those eyes that held lifetimes of experience and knowledge. He stood before me and with a smile. He asked, “May I sit down, so we can talk?” He was the first adult to ever talk to me like an equal and I eagerly replied in the affirmative. He sat down flanked by his cloaked guardians and looked at me saying, “I have been looking forward to this meeting for a long time little one. What is your name?” “Vin” “No last name? Where is your mother?” “I never knew her, she died when I was born.” “What was her name?” This question made me angry and the room’s furniture began to shake. The man smiled and said “No need for anger little one. I was just trying to help.” My anger subsided almost as quickly as it swelled. I looked at him with a quizzical gaze trying to hear the words he wasn’t saying, like I could with the others. He watched me do this, a few of those behind him starting to smile as I focused harder on it. He said, “Little one, you cannot use the force on me. My species has a natural inclination against it.” My eyes widened with surprise and I asked, “The force?” He smiled again at me and a few of those behind him actually chuckled but I couldn’t get angry at that I was too focused on what he had to say. He said, “The force, is power. You have it, the men behind me have it and if you come with us I will teach you how to use it.” As if to prove his point he signaled a man behind him and I watched as glass from the kitchen floated to his hand. Turning to him I asked, “If I have power and your people have power, why do we have to listen to you?” “I have a different kind of power, little one, yours can change the world around you, while mine can change the universe.” I thought this over. Then I looked at him, with a determined jaw and a hard glint in my eyes; pulling the blaster from the back of my pants and leveling it at his center. He didn’t flinch or tense from what I could see and neither did any of his men. I said to him, “I will only go if Rolf can come too and that is final”. They all smiled at that and he nodded towards Rolf saying, “Rolf is the massif, I presume.” I nodded. He said, “Of course your pet can come little one”. I smiled, thankful for finally finding someone who listened to what I wanted and respected what I said. “Her name was Seva, no one knew her so no one could tell me her last name” I said. “Would it surprise you to know your mother was a friend of mine? In fact, I helped her realize her potential too.” With a shocked voice I asked him what she was like. He replied, “Strong, loyal, and many other things. We can talk about her more soon little one but for now I think it should suffice for me to unveil your surname to you. It is Sadir.” I rolled the word on my tongue, it felt strong, it felt powerful, and in that moment I was proud it was mine.

                I walked out with the man into the rain, with his entourage and Rolf following. He turned to me and asked if there was anyone in this village I hated. I turned to him and said, “Since I was born, this place has done nothing but tear me down. I would burn it and all these belligerent, vengeful, and ignorant townspeople along with it. He turned to me smiling and said, “Is that what you really want?” I gave him a nod. He walked with me to the middle ship then he turned around to those cloaked reapers. He said to them, “The little one would like this village gone, see to it”. They bowed their heads in unison and raised their right hands to their left shoulders as a kind of salute. They walked back to the village spreading out and as they made it to the border of the first home they let their lightsabers crackle to life, red crimson shading the area around them. The white knights started firing from all sides into the village. The townsfolk rushed from their homes firing their blasters in maiming a few but many met quick deaths to blaster fire. But the cloaked ones prowled through the village slicing apart anyone who got in their path, they were death incarnate, they were power given form, they were what I wanted to be. When the village was ablaze and townsfolk were left as carrion for the animals, I turned to the withered man and told him, “I’m sorry. You lost some of your white knights because of me.” Smiling he replied, “Stormtroopers are not hard to replace, if it brought you even a modicum of joy my boy then it was worth it.” I looked at him, filled with awe not ever in my entire life had anyone or anything cared about my happiness other than Rolf. “Thank you, sir. I promise I’ll repay you for this kindness however I can”. He chuckled, “Little one do not worry about that now, and only subordinates must call me sir. We are friends aren’t we, you may call me Snoke.” And with that the ships doors closed and the ships departed, just as day broke on the carnage and ruin they left behind.

                Snoke was going to take me to the Academy and I train me to be in the special division, to become a Sith, to become what I had seen that night, to become death.       


	2. First Space Ride

                As we broke the planet’s atmosphere I looked back through the ships starboard porthole, thinking of the jungles I used to run wild in, the rivers I used to swim in, and the town I was imprisoned in; I was ready to leave it all behind to finally have my salvation. I trained my eyes on the planet’s surface as we pulled farther and farther away. I felt no presences beside me and was startled when I heard Snoke say, “Come now little one that is your past. Come look at your future”. I tried to conceal my alarm but he must have noticed because he chuckled, quickly reminding me that his species was in fact immune to the force. It was scary to have found someone immune to my innate gifts but it was also humbling. I signaled for Rolf to stay with the cloaked figures, figuring he was probably in need of a nap after our eventful night. As we walked to the bridge of the transport craft, he turned to me and upon observing my discomfort at not being able to feel his presence said, “Do not worry little one, you have nothing to fear from me. Your mother was very dear to me, as you will be. In fact, if it would make you feel better I will train you on how to detect me and any other trying to mask their presence from the force.” “How?” “Simply put: instead of detecting something, I will teach you to detect the absence of something as well. The space I inhabit will feel empty, when you should feel something. It will take a while to master but I’m sure you’ll be up for it.” Turning to him I nodded my thanks, finally feeling wanted, I smiled at him.

                We walked for only another minute or so before we were directly before a large blast door. He turned to me with a serious expression giving me a solemn nod, pointing to the pad by the right side of the door. My fingers trembled as I reached out for the pad. “Stop” Snoke said. I did, looking to him in confusion. Snoke knelt down next to getting on eye level and spoke, “Fear is not power little one, it is weakness. From now on you will draw strength from pride, hate, and pain. Right now I want you to use pride, the men piloting this ship are replaceable. You are not, you are the one I have spent years looking for. You need to hold your head high as we walk in, they need to know you are not afraid of anything; that you are to be feared. Do you understand?” I looked him in the eyes and gave one firm nod. I then reached out with confidence and opened the door.

                I strode in assessing everything that I saw. The pilots, the communications specialist, the guards, and the engineer all stopped what they were doing and looked at me. It was then that I noticed Snoke was not standing beside me, that I had walked on to the bridge very much alone. But I remembered what he had told me and with an authoritative voice, I commanded, “What are you looking at? Back to work all of you!” They all quickly busied themselves after that. I approached the window and looked out on the stars. It was then I heard the blast doors open again and saw Snoke enter the room, he looked at me with a proud look in his eye and then asked the pilots, “How long till we dock?” “About another 10 minutes sir, The Finalizer had to conceal itself by a nearby moon to avoid detection from the New Republic forces.” “Good, good make sure they are prepared to make a jump to hyperspace as soon as we board. The Academy will want to have it newest recruit as soon as possible.” They nodded their understanding. Then Snoke signaled for me to follow him.

                I followed him out of the bridge and we proceeded back the way we had come, until Snoke turned off into a corner I hadn’t noticed. He pressed the door pad and I followed him into a dark room, once the door closed behind me we were thrown into pitch black. Then the middle of the table sparked to life with a hologram. On it I saw a young man wearing a grey uniform and a long black coat. Snoke addressed him, “General Hux, I want everything to be in order when I arrive. Please ensure that a good room is drawn up for little Vin here, also make sure his room can accommodate a Massif.” Hux nodded and the hologram cut out. The room was plunged into darkness for only a second before Snoke flicked a light on. I looked upon the walls and found the strewn with weapons, Snoke watched me for a minute before telling me to pick one or two. I perused the racks carefully I picked up a blaster pistol. I brought it back to Snoke who inspected it and gave it back saying, “The model 434 heavy blaster pistol very nice, perhaps a bit heavy but if you think you can handle it.” I nodded earnestly, hoping he would let me keep this beauty. He smiled at me, put his hand on my back and escorted me out of the room, saying “I think we will be boarding soon”.

                As the shuttle landed in the hanger and the doors opened I was brought into a whole new world. The hanger was abuzz with life, soldiers filed out of the other transports from the ground and proceeded either to the armory to check their weapons or to medical to bandage their wounds. Snoke led me with, Rolf and the six sith following behind, through a labyrinth of halls until we reached the bridge. Upon arriving we were greeted by the man from the hologram, he and Snoke talked while I began to look over the shoulders of every operator on the bridge, wondering what they were doing. Finally I just started asking people and it was all going quite well until I ran into a man who simply grunted in response to all my questions. I then saw a very shiny person and immediately walked up behind them and tugged on their small black shoulder cape, asked bluntly, “Who are you and what do you do? Also why are you so shiny?” The chrome soldier turned to me and said, “My name is captain Phasma and I lead the contingent of stormtroopers attached to this ship. My armor is this color to mark the clear distinction between me and a regular grunt. Who may I ask are you?” “I’m Vin Sadir.” I said with a smile, the addition of a last name filling me with pride. The chrome soldier replied, “I worked with your mother once, she was a fine warrior.” Just as we were about to get into a longer discussion I was called over by Snoke. He formally introduced me to Hux. Hux offered his hand and I shook it cautiously. He said smiling, “It is a pleasure to meet you, I’m sure you and I will have many adventures together, my friend.” **“But if you jeopardize the First Order or Supreme Leader Snoke in any way and I will put you down”** I looked at Snoke and asked, “Why does he call you Supreme Leader and what is the First Order?” Hux looked baffled, a few of the sith let a millisecond of shock show on their faces, Phasema chuckled at Hux, and Snoke smiled and said, “You are already very strong with the force little one, but with training we can make you even stronger” he would later go on to explain the First Order, it’s goals, and how he led it.

                Snoke told me he had some boring things to discuss with Hux and told me to go to my room. I asked if Phasma could take me there. As we walked through the identical halls in silence I became very tired. I hadn’t slept in a full day and I had yet to have anything to eat since the dinner at the village the night before. I looked at Phasma and asked, “Will you carry me?” Phasma replied, “Are you going to be an asset or a liability? Walk or fall where you stand but I will not carry you” **“Why don’t you try one of those force mind tricks if you need me to carry you so badly?”** I turned to her and asked, “What force mind tricks?” She looked at me stunned and said, “Stop that right now get out of my head.” “I will… if you carry me”. So with a frustrated sigh she picked me up and proceeded to give me a piggy-back ride the last stretch of the trip. The hallways were mostly deserted except for a few droids and it didn’t take that long before we arrived at my room. She said to me, “That will never happen again, I don’t care what tricks you have.” I looked at her and smiled saying, “You said I was either going to be an asset or a liability, I was just showing you that my power makes me an asset. I do hope however that there will be no hard feelings between us”. She chuckled and said, “Fair enough but never use your power on me again”. I nodded my agreement, knowing that even if I did use my power she would never know. And with that she left me and Rolf alone in a room bigger than our entire home back on Yavin. I quickly found food set out for me and Rolf on the table. Placing his bowl on the ground we began to eat. The food was the best I ever tasted cooked and flavored by someone who actually knew what they were doing rather than the gruel Lisa made for us or my own failed attempts at cooking. With a full stomach and a contentment I hadn’t felt in years, I climbed into bed. The sheets and pillows were unbelievably soft and with Rolf curled up next to me I fell asleep in minutes.

                In the morning I was awoken by Rolf standing to attention growling on top of the bed. He was staring down two stromtroopers who had entered my room just a few minutes ago. One of them was holding clothes another holding towels. They told me Snoke would like to see me as soon as I was ready, and that they only came to provide me with clean clothes to wear. I took the towel and clothes from them and sent them on their way. I then searched for the bathroom. I had never used a shower before I had always just washed in the river. But I figured it out soon enough and after drying off I grabbed my new clothes inspecting them further once I was dressed. I was wearing simple black pants with a slightly oversized black shirt, and a black cloak. I tucked my blaster into an inner pocket of my cloak. I noticed I looked like a mini-sith, and smiled to myself knowing one day I would be a true sith, with real power.

                I left my room with Rolf in tow and was greeted by Captain Phasma and 6 other stormtroopers outside my door. Phasma told me to follow her and as I kept in step with her the other stormtroopers fell in line behind us. I was led down many hallways turning every so often to the point where I was utterly lost. Then Phasma opened a door and signaled for her men to stay outside. As we walked in, Rolf began sniffing the air incessantly. As we rounded a corner of the hallway and were finally greeted by an open room I took note of was the room was made entirely from glass from large window to the ceiling to even the floor. From this room I could see the stars in almost every direction. The second thing I noticed was the smell Rolf must have picked up on, it smelled like roasted meat and sweet fruits. The third thing was the origin of those smells almost in the dead center of the room was a dark hardwood table with an array of foods set out. The final thing I noticed was Hux and Snoke standing off to the side, waiting for presumably me and Phasma.

                As we all sat down for breakfast I looked at the mounds of food and then at Rolf sitting patiently beside me. Snoke must have noticed me do this because he said, “It is alright if you wish to give Rolf something, there is enough for all five of us here” “Thank you” I said and eagerly grabbed a few pieces of meat to give to my faithful friend. We ate in silence for a while, till Hux asked me, “How did you find your room was everything to your liking?” “Yes, very much so. Thank you, sir for arranging that” Hux gave me a genuine smile at that **“Maybe the little-sith, won’t be as bad as I thought. At least he knows how to show respect”.** I looked at Hux and with a smirk said, “I’m glad you are coming around”. He looked at me first in apprehension but that quickly faded with his own smirk he thought **“Well with a power like that I would hate to be your enemy”**. I smiled at him and nodded my head in agreement. Phasma looked between us both and spoke up saying, “Hux may be alright with you going into his head, but I would still prefer it if you stay out of mine”. I smiled at her, “Of course captain“. Snoke gave a genuine full laugh at the situation which seemed to startle everyone, based on the sound it didn’t seem like he laughed a lot, it sounded pained like the fires of war had burned his lungs a long time ago. Breakfast continued in this manner for some time the discussion mainly being held by Hux, Phasma and myself but then Snoke dismissed them saying he wanted to talk to me alone.

                As Phasma and Hux filed out of the room, the ship reentered hyperspace. We had been jumping and stopping for hours making sure to avoid areas held by the New Republic or Rebels, or sometimes even pirates if they were known for being notoriously well armed like they were in Hutt space. It wasn’t because this ship couldn’t win a fight, in fact it could easily take them, it was rather because we had better things to do. As the stars shifted past us at unfathomable speeds, as the galaxy went whooshing by our windows, Snoke looked at me and said, “I think we should talk about your mother.” I gulped, not knowing whether I wanted to know or not, but remembering that fear was weakness; I refused to be weak and shook my head signaling for him to continue. “She was one of my best agents. I had trained her since she was twelve, she was strong with the force, but what was even more impressive was her strength of will. She never failed an assignment, whether it be infiltration and intelligence gathering, assassination, or leading an armed raid on a known enemy stronghold. She was unstoppable. That was until I sent her to kill Luke Skywalker. She carried a lightsaber and a blaster pistol, along with a few thermal detonators. When I told her to kill Luke he was just starting to found his New Jedi Order, he still lacked padwans but he was getting closer to gaining some most notably his nephew Ben Solo. At the time she was nearly four months pregnant with you, the reports I received have proved inconclusive but suffice it to say she failed in her mission. She lost her lightsaber and was almost apprehended. When she returned she begged me for another mission to prove she still could get the job done. I had asked her to wait till she had had you, but she was adamant. She picked out an assignment for herself, she was to infiltrate a rebel splinter cell based out of the Outer Rim territories and eliminate all of its leadership in one swoop. The last I had heard from her she was in transit to the target location. After that radio silence. I feared the worse, that both she and her child were lost. I searched the whole system for you every backwater planet, but I had to do it discreetly because otherwise I would have led Luke and his New Jedi Order right to you. And then I finally found you and I want nothing more than to see to succeed.”

                I looked him in the eye and tried desperately to see into his head and detect if there were any lies. It was no use my power was truly useless against him, but I looked at his face the earnestness in it and decided that this was the first man to ever trust me, to ever praise me, to ever want anything to do with, to ever care for me and in that moment I decided it didn’t matter whether the story was true. “Snoke, I hope to make you and my mother proud and I promise as long as there is breath in my body, I will kill Luke Skywalker.” Snoke looked taken back by the offer, as if this was the only scenario he didn’t anticipate, my eagerness to please. He smiled at me and said, “Then I guess we should get working on those powers”. We spent the next several hours doing just that. I practiced lifting weights with my mind, jumping higher using the force, and I got inside countless stormtroopers’ heads and even started to make them do things like hopping on one foot.  Snoke was a very proficient teacher and he told me I was a fast learner. However we were interrupted by Hux, who had an urgent report for Snoke to look at. Snoke however told me it was a good thing, that my mind needed rest. I however wanted to keep training so I convinced Phasma to take me the shooting range.

                When we arrived at the range Phasma told me to take a few shots at the target distanced at 30 meters so she could get a baseline of what she was working with. I pulled out my model 434 heavy blaster pistol, I took aim at my target, took a slow breath in and out, and squeezed the trigger. When the blaster was out I had managed to hit the target over half the time. Phasma said “Not bad for some Yavin backwater scamp who has only ever taken pot shots at womp rats”. She then upholstered her blaster, aimed, and fired with far greater precision and speed than I had. She hadn’t missed a single shot. More astonished than embarrassed, I then pleaded with her to show me how to be a better shot. She taught me a better stance, a better grip to hold on the gun, taught me how to feel the gun as part of myself. The practice lasted an hour at most before we were called away to the bridge but she had told me “You have made reasonable progress, so far you could almost qualify as one of my cadets” **“Damn kid, is good enough to be one of my men”**. I kept my smile hidden from her, and me and Rolf happily followed her to the bridge.

                As we arrived on the bridge I could see a fleet outside the window. A few starships the size of The Finalizaer, some smaller craft, and a couple of fighter patrols. I walked with Phasma, until we were standing by Snoke and Hux, who were also staring out the window. Hux was telling him, “The fleet is coming along nicely sir, The Punishment, The Victorious, The Invincible, and The Master are all battle operational and The Inquisition will be ready soon enough. Their support fleets will take a bit longer to complete and we currently waiting for resupply of needed alloys.” “Good, when we make our move it will be from a position of strength.” Phasma joined in and said, “My men eagerly await your command sir”. Snoke chuckled saying, “All in good time. Anyway we aren’t here for the fleet, we are here because the little one must begin his training with the other apprentices at the Academy.” I looked at him and with a solid nod agreed. He then asked me, “What do you think of your new home?” “What planet is this?” “Korriban”.


	3. The Academy

                As we made our way to the hangar I took stock of recent events. Just a few days ago I was an orphan no one cared for and lived in a hovel. Now I am walking alongside leaders, who wield more power than I could ever have fathomed on a starship larger than any craft I have ever seen while traveling to a new home where I will learn to bend the world to my will. I smiled to Rolf trotting beside me and then closed my eyes listening to the full retinue of stormtroopers accompanying us to the hangar.

                As we entered the hangar, I was stunned to find it abnormally quiet. The stormtroopers, who had accompanied us, stopped just inside the hangar standing to attention till Phasma dismissed them. I saw a few guards standing near a lone H-2 executive shuttle, at the far end of the hanger. The walk wasn’t a long one but with the growing feeling of excitement over my new prospects made it feel like years. As we approached the guards, they began to part leaving one man in the middle. He was clearly not a member of the First Order, no from what I had seen the First Order held themselves with honor, with distinction, with pride, they were masters of the universe; this man hanged his head in defeat, his shoulders slumped in submission, it was clear to me that the universe had conquered him and even worse he accepted it. I felt a kind of hatred for this man, he couldn’t have had it worse than me and yet he was giving up; what gave him that right, the filth probably didn’t even put up much of a fight. Now  standing just five feet from the man Snoke turned to me and said, “One last thing little one, I need to know you are serious about the Academy, that you are willing to do what it takes. This man is an enemy of mine and I would like you to kill him, if you can’t…” I pulled my blaster and fired it so quickly Snoke didn’t even have time to finish his sentence. The man died with one blaster bolt going through his head and enough bolts through his chest that it left a hole large enough for me to put my fist through if I wanted. Snoke smiled saying, “Well then, I guess that answers that.” I insisted on watching the man’s body be jettisoned to space. It was truly I sight to see, one second his husk was laying on the floor and then the blast doors opened instantly freezing his body and pulling him out into space. On his way out he even hit the side of the blast door and he shattered like glass. Once that was done, Snoke put a hand on my shoulder and we walked to the shuttle. Boarding only took a minute but I saw Hux climb into the pilots seat himself and I asked Snoke, “Why is Hux flying, isn’t he a general, doesn’t he have people to do that for him?” “Many believe this planet simply holds our largest research facility. Which in truth it does, but it also holds my best kept secret, the Academy. Only essential personal and officers of the highest distinction, like Hux and Phasma, know of the Academy.” I nodded my head in understanding and took to staring out the window as we flew towards my destiny.

                Breaking the atmosphere I was greeted with a barren world; it looked like nothing but shifting sand, but as we came closer to the ground I saw statues and ancient cities lost to the desert and crumbling to dust. We came to a landing site in a large canyon, located just before a large mountain range. As we exited the shuttle I brought my hand up, the sun blinding at first. As my eyes adjusted I looked to the largest mountain and saw two lone massive figures standing just off center. They looked to be carved from the cliff face, worn down by weather and time. We approached the entrance at a moderate pace, I tried to stay in front of Phasma her armor was damn near blinding in the sun. At about a hundred meters out I began to see the outline of an entrance. At fifty meters I began to notice the defenses, a few laser cannons could be seen attached to the cliff face. Snoke grabbed me at this point, saying, “We need to tread carefully now little one. The same countermeasures which in the future will keep you safe, are right now threatening your life.” I looked at him in confusion, for a moment; till he took a small stone off the nearby ground and chucked it ahead of us. The sand cackled to life, lightning seemed to spark from the ground. Once it had calmed down, I observed a few new pieces of glass laying where the sand once was, and asked “What was that?” Phasma was the one to reply, “Those would be arc mines, extremely effective against most targets, even force users. They fire off high voltage electricity when one of their sensors is tripped. We had them installed just in case this location is ever compromised. Just make sure you and Rolf follow in our footsteps and it’ll be fine.” I immediately pulled Rolf to my side and ensured he would stay there as we proceeded to follow Hux, Snoke, and Phasma through the field.

                Coming up to the large entrances doors, I allowed myself a brief moment of relief. I looked at Hux and asked, “I’ve been wondering, how old are you? Aren’t you a little young to be a general?” “I’m 23. And as for me being too young, I would say: My family has been serving as officers for the Empire since its founding. I was born for this, same as you” Just as he finished speaking the doors began to open and a hallway stood before us. We proceeded inside and as we walked down the short hallway I saw another door. This one looked very old and as I came face to face with it, I saw it was fashioned out of engraved stone, the engravings details had long since been lost to the ages but in it I could decipher two sides waging a fierce battle. Snoke said it was the history of the sith, he told me I would learn about it and much more once my training officially began. We walked through the doorway into a large room, perhaps a hundred feet wide and a fifty feet in length at the opposite end of the room was yet again another door. The only light came from the sides of the room, in front of those lights stood a dozen sith. One approached, he came into clearer distinction and I recognized he was human. He briefly spoke to Snoke and when he was done talking with him he turned and led us to the door, which turned out to actually be elevator doors. We all filed into the elevator Phasma, Hux, and Rolf nearer to the back while I stood with Snoke and this new man at the front. I looked at the panel and upon observing the plethora of buttons ranging from the positive to well into the negative, I asked, “Which one of these should I press” “None of them, if you value your life. This elevator is rigged to explode if any of those buttons are pushed manually” the new man spoke. I looked at him stunned, clearly trying to figure out what the purpose of that could be. He replied to my unasked question, “There is a light layer of a film like substance over the buttons, if the buttons are pressed manually then the film will be disturbed and the charges at the base of this elevators cables detonate. Then if the explosion itself doesn’t kill everyone inside the fall does. It is another layer of security, it is our fail-safe for if the enemy ever makes it this far.” I processed this information quickly, trying to figure out how we were supposed to use the buttons. I tentatively thought of the answer and said, “So we use the force to push the buttons without ever touching the film.” Snoke smiled at me and the new man nodded. I again asked what button should be pushed. He looked at me then at Snoke, Snoke signaling him to answer, he said, “negative fifteen”. I looked at negative fifteen and concentrated trying to remember everything Snoke had taught me on the ship. The button depressed and I heard an actual sigh of relief come from Hux. The trip down was made in silence.

                The elevator stopped with a soft jolt and small ding. Its steel doors sliding open, allowing me my first look at what would be my new home. It was brightly lit and extremely large with dual staircases running up to another floor. Two stormtroopers stood guard outside the elevator, saluting as we all walked off. I turned to the new man and asked, “How do non-force users make use of the elevators.” He replied, “A force user is generally on hand to help them, or they use the auxiliary stairs.” Snoke, Hux and Phasma were quickly pulled away into a meeting. But before he left Snoke took me by the shoulders and made me face him. He said, “Little one, this is probably going to be the last time I see you for a while. This man is going to take care of you” he indicated the new man, “now remember to train hard and make me proud.” I told him I would and he walked away. Phasma and Hux turned to me, saluted, Hux smiling and saying goodbye as well. I watched all three walk away and stood there in silence for a while afterwards wondering when I would see them again. Rolf pushed his head into my side, trying to provide comfort. It was then that the new man addressed me, “Vin my name is Horvo Malick, I am going to be your teacher from now on. Snoke has big plans for you and I’m going to make sure you are ready for when the time comes. Now let me give you the tour.” This being the first opportunity for me to get a good look at him, I did so and noticed a large scar across his left cheek, he was bald, and his eyes were dark brown.

                The tour started in the mess hall, where he told me that was where I would be getting my meals. Tables ran the length of the room, many stormtroopers and other personnel were currently eating at those tables. I could see even more standing in line waiting for their meals. He then led me to the library it was an extremely large room. In it were hundreds of book cases stacked to the ceiling and it appeared as though there were literally thousands of books on shelves, he told me I was allowed to spend my leisure time there if I wanted. He showed me the workshop where I could request customized equipment or build it myself, if I was so inclined. Many of the tools in there were completely foreign to me. The classroom was boring, it had plateaued seating so that there were three levels all with equal sight lines of the board; he told me that is where I would receive my conventional lessons, on history and stratagem. The hanger was impressive, it held many different types of both land and space craft; he told me I would receive training on all of them soon enough. He then brought me to the training room, I looked at the equipment, some blasters and other weapons hung on the wall. He pointed to the door to the right side of the room and said that led to the shooting range. I noticed some chains on the opposite wall and asked what they were for. He replied, “Those are for when we need to practice the force on prisoners, from what I hear you will be using those quite a lot.” We left that room and continued the tour, he pointed out other areas, the bathrooms, the security stations, but he told me not to focus on those because they weren’t relevant to me. Finally we came to a large circular room, in its center was lounge furniture and leisure items, such as a Dejarik board; along the wall of the room were doors. Horvo showed me to one door telling me this would be my personal room, I walked inside and quickly found it to be even larger than the room I had on The Finalizer, and I saw that they had even laid out a small bed for Rolf. Horvo then called me out of my room, when I was standing with him he called in loud voice, “Everyone come out and meet the newest member of your squad. And welcome him into the Special Division.” The other doors opened quickly and out came a Zabrak, two Twi’leks, and three humans, they were all dressed in sith garb. I quickly looked them over. The Zabrak was a pale yellow with the standard looking yet intricate black tattoos covering his face emphasizing his blood red eyes, and his horns had yet to come in fully. The Twi’leks were most definitely twins they were almost identical both the same shade of green with the same yellow eyes, the only difference was one had a look of mischief in her eye while the other remained stoically serious. Of the three humans one was a boy, he was large for his age, his hair was jet black and his eyes were an auburn brown, he wore a few scars on his lip showing that he was no stranger to a brawl. One of the girls had blonde hair which she wore in a ponytail, her eyes were magenta, she had a pretty smile on her face that was meant to put me at ease, but I could tell there was a predator lurking just beneath the surface. The other girl was a brunette, her hair in a single braid, her striking green eyes had a hard glint in them and her arms were crossed in front of her. From what I could tell, they were all roughly my age. Horvo then said, “This is Vin, acquaint yourselves with him and make sure he knows what will be expected of him” and with that Horov walked away. Then they all watched me carefully, the green eyed girl the first to speak up, asking “So, what’s your story?”


	4. Introductions

          “So what you’re saying is you were living on some backwater world in squalor, only a few days ago until a whole star destroyer of men, six sith, and Snoke, the great and powerful leader of the strongest organization to ever exist in the galaxy personally came to get you and your damn massif? What the hell is so special about you?” the human boy said, looking at me like I was beneath him. I was getting ready to enjoy kicking his ass, when a swift hit to his stomach followed by an elbow to his back brought him to the floor. The green eyed girl smiled at me then, she was about to say something but was interrupt by the boy, who said,” Velkav, I swear I’m going to kick your ass for that.” As he got up she took a few steps back, everyone else also backed away to stay out of the fight. The boy readied his stance holding his arms tight to his chest like he was preparing for a boxing match, the girl however maintained a loose stance; she looked at me with a lackadaisical smile, and said, “Keep your eyes on me, you might learn something. But don’t blink because he is going down in the next five seconds.” Five: the boy infuriated by her comment made a quick lunge attempting to throw a right hook at her. Four: She ducked under his arm and sent a straight jab to his nose. Three: his head snapped back from the force of the bunch and he stumbled two steps back. Two: the girl seized her opportunity taking a step forward then making a quick sweeping kick with her leg, causing him to fall. One: Almost as soon as his body hit the ground she pressed knee to his throat. The boy tried to throw a punch with his right arm but she caught his wrist with one hand and with the other she applied pressure against his elbow; she also preemptively trapped his other arm under her leg which wasn’t pressing against his throat. I watched the boy struggle for a few minutes trying to turn the tables, the girl and the others laughing at him. When he finally submitted she got off of him and then she turned to me, extending her hand with a smile. I was fairly certain I wouldn’t be able to take her in a fight, so I was hoping she wouldn’t decide to snap my wrist as a power play. Her hand was surprisingly soft, mine must have been sweaty because she immediately chuckled saying, “Relax, newbie, I promise not to kick your ass outside of training unless you piss me off.” She let go of my hand and took a step back saying, “I’m Vilkav Malick, that moof-milker over there” indicating the human boy ”who just gave me an excuse for the best kickass first impression ever is Ish-del Kain” pointing to the Zabrak “that is my brother, Nokrao Malick, the Twi’lek twins are Oarukdakuf and Oocozreso Syca, and the blonde is Akela Vale.” I said my hellos to all of them, most of the greetings were receptive except for Ish-del, who was probably still angry over his humiliation.

         Vilkav gestured to the furniture in the middle of the room and everyone quickly found a seat, I found myself sitting on a couch with Rolf laying down by my feet. The Twi’leks were on a couch with Akela to my right, in the two chairs to my left sat Ish-del, occupying the nearer chair, Nokrao sitting slightly farther off, sitting directly in front of me was Vilkav. Her chair was imposing; the couches and other chairs were fashioned from a dark brown fabric material, her chair was larger and made of black leather. She leveled me with a hard stare and began speaking in a soft voice that still somehow demanded the whole room’s attention, “Horvo says you are going to be training with us so let me make one thing clear right now: If you disrespect Horvo, this facility, me, or any of our squad mates, then I will personally beat some respect into you. Got it?” I nodded my head. “Good, now before we start telling you about ourselves, I think it would be good to tell you what your normal day is going to be like from now on. You’ll alarm will go off at six in the morning, you will have twenty minutes to prepare for the day and head to the mess hall. Once there, you will get half an hour for breakfast if you miss it then you will not eat till lunch. After breakfast you will report to the classroom for lessons and we will study till lunch, then we will go to whatever activity Horvo tells us to, after that you will have some free time, till dinner which will be served from eight to nine. After nine you will be allowed to do whatever you wish for however long you like, but keep in mind if you do not make it out of your room by lesson time the next day, Horvo will personally kick your ass, and then I will. Any questions?” I again nodded. “Alright then, let’s move on to more formal introductions. Twins you go first.”

          The more mischievous Twi’lek said, “Well where to start, sister do you have any idea?” The serious sister replied, “The beginning is always a good place to start, why not keep things simple and start there”. The mischievous one nodded, “Well my name is Oarukdakuf Syca and that is my sister Oocozreso, make sure you remember because if you get us confused I might cut you in half” she said patting one of two black lightsabers attached to her hip, they were enlaced with silver which spiraled down to the very bottom of the blade ending in a sharp point. Her sister’s lightsabers were identical except they had gold inlays instead of silver. Before I could ask them where they got they got their lightsabers, Velkav in a warning tone said, “Oarukdakuf, play nice, or I will kick your ass too.” The Twi’lek sent her a smirk nodding her head slightly before turning back to me and continuing, “We were born into slavery or are parents sold us, we were too young to remember. It wasn’t a terrible life, as odd as that may sound, our Zygerrian master treated us well, kept us well fed, and clothed. But then our master racked up a deep gambling debt and they made an example out of him, it wasn’t pretty. They took his assets, including us, to the market to be sold in order to pay off his debts. Horvo bought us, and as soon as we were on his ship he unshackled us, told us he was there to help and brought us here to be trained, that was three years back, if I remember correctly.” Oocozreso nodded her head in agreement, briefly adding that they had taken the surname of the slaver as their own; saying he was more a parent to them then whoever their real parents were.

           The blonde went next, in a lazy voice she said, “Like Vilkav has already told you, my name is Akela Vale. My family originally had been a happy and whole. We lived in a First Order facility on Kuat. That is until a rebel attack occurred, killing my mother and burning almost everything we had to the ground. After that my father took command of The Master, it wasn’t till last year that Horvo came to take me here.” As she had talked I took note of her magenta eyes, how they took on a kind of fire, that fire burned hotter than a thousand suns and in it I could feel the full depth of her hatred for the rebels. After her Velkav looked pointedly at Ish-del until he began to speak. He said, “My name is Ish-del, I’ve been here only six months. I was born on Coruscant, my parents were criminals. As such it shouldn’t be too surprising to learn my father died the night I was born, in an underworld shoot out. My mother took care of me till she got arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison by New Republic authorities cracking down on black market trading, she was killed by another inmate about a month into her sentence. On my own I decided to use what money I had to buy myself a blaster and then I started trying to get work from their former associates. Seven years old and I became a criminal. That was four years ago, now I won’t say the life was fun or luxurious but I did get fairly good at it. But I also fell into some debts to some scary people so when Horvo came and said he would take me far away, I agreed.”

          When he was done talking I looked a Nokrao and Velkav. Velkav looked at Nokrao, and he looked back at her nodding. Velkav began, “Me and Nokrao have been here for about five years. We lived in orphanage together for a little while, we protected each other from the other kids. Horvo came around my fourth birthday, Nokrao was five at the time. Horvo said he wanted to take us away and make us strong. He has been a father to us ever since. After a year here, he formally adopted us and that’s it. And now that we got all the introductions out of the way, it is time for bed unless you have any questions” “Just one. Where did the twins get their lightsabers?” “We all have them, we make them.” As she said this she pulled out her own, the handle was curved, chrome on the top and bottom but it had a custom black grip in the middle that was fitted perfectly for her hand. Ish-del’s was a double, black for the most part, but it had alternating gold and silver bands every inch or so. Nokrao had a single, its handle was simple solid black it was extra-long though looking like he gripped it with both his hands instead of the traditional one. Akela’s lightsaber was an ostentatious double, chrome at the ends and gold in the middle. I asked, “When do I get to make mine?” Velkav responded, “When Horvo thinks you’re ready. Now we should all probably being going to bed, if we want to wake up in time for breakfast.” And with that they all dispersed, except for Akela, who said with a smile, “Just stick close to me tomorrow Vin, I’ll make sure you survive the day.” And with that she walked off into her room. I then shook Rolf awake from his spot on the floor and decided head back to my room to get some sleep for the night.


	5. First Day

       I awoke to a loud alarm and my room lights flashing erratically, it took me three minutes to find the off button located on my bedside table. I groggily got up, Rolf somehow had managed to sleep through the chaos and was still laying comfortably on his bed in the corner. I walked to the bathroom and showered, when I came back out I found a set of black clothes on my bed, with a note laying on top. The note read: “Hello, little one, I’d recommend using these for today, Horvo said you are going to be practicing hand to hand combat and these will allow for a full range of motion while also providing reasonable protection. Take care, Snoke” I looked at the clothes and realized they were, in fact, made for combat having extra padding on the shoulders, elbows, and knees. I quickly got dressed and looked at the wall clock it read six seventeen. Realizing I only had three minutes to make it to the mess hall and I might get lost along the way, I attempted to rouse Rolf. “Come on, boy, time for breakfeast” Rolf however had other ideas and remained firmly where he lay. _“Rolf get up, and come with me now”_ Rolf immediately got up and stumbled over to me. Finally I began to exit my room. “You sure took your sweet time, newbie, come on. We need to hurry” Akela said to me, she had been leaning on the wall next to my room presumably waiting for me. Unlike last night she had her hair down, it was a little past shoulder length. I followed her as she set off at a brisk pace down the myriad of hallways.

       Upon arriving at the mess hall, I found the room to be fairly full already. I did notice that the stormtroopers were sitting at their own tables and not intermingling with my new squad at all. Then as I was about to take my place in line I was stupefied to see Akela simply walk to the front, she looked at me offering a tray and said, “What are you waiting for?” I took the tray from her and continued to move down the line with her grabbing whatever I thought looked good. As I filled the last available space on my tray I asked, “Why didn’t we have to wait in line.” She responded with a smile saying, “Don’t be silly of course we get to cut in line, we are sith, and one of the many benefits of being a sith is we don’t have to wait in line for food” and with that she walked off. I followed her to a table and we sat down, across from us sat the twins and upon seeing her arrival Ish-del came over a sat down next to her. Velkav and Nokrao were sitting at the far end of the table leaving a sizeable no man’s land between them and the rest of the squad. Rolf was just tall enough sitting down to rest his head on the table top while he sat at the end. I reached out affectionately rubbing his muzzle and then sliding him a sizeable piece of meat from my tray. “The massif should probably stay in your room till you’re done with the day’s training, newbie.” Ish-del said. “He has a name” I replied. Ish-del stared me down, perceiving offence were none was intended. I stared back at him. The tension was broken by Akela, who said, “Well why don’t you formally introduce us then?” “Sure, Akela, Oarukdakuf, Oocozreso, Ish-del this is Rolf.” Akela smiled at Rolf, reaching out to pat him on the head and said, “Hello Rolf, nice to meet you.” The twins followed suit petting Rolf. Ish-del said nothing. Conversation ebbed and flowed for a few minutes after that, I mainly listened to their synopses of the Academy and their previous lessons. Until Akela said, “Good thing you picked those clothes for today, hand to hand combat can get a bit rough.”  I responded, “Yeah, Snoke left me a note saying I should, so I figured he would know what he was talking about.” At my mention of Snoke, they all immediately stopped what they were doing. Then Ish-del said: “So what you’re saying is: Snoke has taken a personal interest in not only getting you here but also your training and safety. Seriously what is so special about you?” “He is a legacy, his mother was a sith, who personally served under supreme leader Snoke and now he is going to be a sith too” the sudden addition of a voice startled the rest of my squad at the table but I had already felt his presence, it had become familiar to me while onboard The Finalizer. I turned to general Hux and asked him, “I thought you were off doing important things with Snoke, what are you doing here?” “Snoke wanted to make sure your room was to your liking and he also asked me to talk with Horvo regarding his lesson plans for today” I nodded my understanding, observing the rest of my squad slightly in awe of my easy countenance while talking to a general. Hux shortly thereafter dismissed himself and walked out of the mess hall with two stormtroopers flanking him.

      I spent the rest of breakfast answering questions on just how familiar I was with general Hux and Snoke. As everyone left to head to the classroom I turned to the nearest person who happened to be an officer and asked, “Can you take my massif back to my room” The officer looked at me and replied, “I’m a bit busy at the moment, perhaps you should ask a stormtrooper.” _“It won’t take long, just take him to my room and then move along with your day”_ The officer blinked once or twice and then said, “I guess it won’t take too long, I can take him” and with that he got Rolf’s attention and once I had assured Rolf it was okay for him to leave me they were off. Akela then looked at me, saying, “Well that explains a lot.” Upon my looking at her in confusion she elaborated, “Snoke has taken a very keen interest in you because, your powers, at least your force mind tricks, are very advanced for your age. Combine that with the fact you’re a legacy, which is something he has always wanted and his whole interest in you becomes very understandable.” I mulled over what she had to say as we made our way to the classroom, we were the last ones out of the mess hall everyone else going on ahead of us as soon as they’d finished their food. I proceeded to ask her, “You cannot make people do what you want?” She shook her head no and said, “Not yet anyway.” I then asked, “What do you mean that Snoke has been trying to get a legacy for a very long time?” “How much do you know about Snoke’s background?” “Not much” “Well okay then, I’ll tell you. Way back when while the empire was at the height of its power, Emperor Palpatine decided to train a bunch of sith to safeguard his empire, much like how the Jedi Order protected the Republic. For this purpose Palpatine created the Special Division, and put Snoke in charge of it. Snoke ran the division effectively, experimenting with different training techniques and perfecting old methods. The Special Division was primarily tasked with weeding out insurgencies, force sensitives, and such. Anyway, eventually Snoke started thinking that a sith born from another sith could have greater powers; see Jedi weren’t allowed to have families so it wasn’t exactly like anyone had done it before. So he went to Palpatine and asked him if he could test his theory. Palpatine in turn fueled by paranoia that a sith with advanced powers could overthrow him one day, ordered the sterilization of all the sith in the Special Division. Snoke had no choice but to obey him, but your mother somehow slipped through, perhaps she was too young for the procedure; I don’t know, but the point is she didn’t get sterilized. Then when Palpatine died and Snoke took power, he was fully able to continue with his plan, only at that point your mother was most likely his only fertile sith, making you the only legacy he could get his hands on.” I could only nod my head in response as I processed all the new information. We walked in silence the rest of the way to the classroom.

      Upon walking into the classroom, I saw Nokrao and Vilkav sitting in the front they occupied the two middle seats. Ish-del and the twins were sitting in the middle row. Leaving four seats in the back, one in the middle and two in the front. Then Akela walked up and took her seat in the middle row. I, awkwardly standing there, decided I might as well sit in the front. I sat down, opting to sit next to Vilkav instead of Nokrao. Once we were all seated we only had to wait another minute or so till Horvo came in. Horvo said, “Alright glad to see everyone made it here on time. Now we are going to have a change in lesson plans for today, instead of just learning about extermination of the first Wookie rebellion and the subsequent re-subjugation of their race. We are first going to be learning about the Knights of Ren. So let’s start at the beginning. The Knights of Ren have dated back all the way to when people first learned how to use the force. Their founder’s first name has long since been lost but we are fairly certain his last name was Ren. He was a force user, the most powerful force user of his time in fact. He trained the knights how to combat the force, and they managed to discover a secret long since lost: Ren and his knights found out how to forge a metal strong enough to counter lightsabers, and I mean this metal could hold its own not just for a short time but indefinitely. He and his knights forged sets of weapons and armor from this metal. And with their help he purged the ranks of both Jedi and sith alike killing anyone they deemed too weak and underserving of the power given to them. As it turned out though Ren was a fool, instead of using his knights to dominate the galaxy he insisted they acted as an equalizer and he kept his group largely in the shadows. Now it is said that, on his death bed Ren told his knights that their new leader should be determined by strength, that if a person could defeat all the knights in combat as well as complete a few trials of skill, he or she would be worthy of taking command. As it turns out this has been an extremely difficult thing to do, and since his death there has been no one strong enough to lead the Knights of Ren. However, their organization has remained throughout the ages, on the outskirts testing the strength of Jedi and sith alike looking for a new leader. Emperor Palpatine himself was once assaulted by three of these knights and barely escaped with his life, after that the empire tried to hunt them down. But they were ghosts, and whenever we did catch up to them they butchered our men. Now no matter how mysterious they may seem, one thing is clear: their power is amazing, and anyone capable of harnessing them will be a force to be reckoned with.” Horvo then went on to discuss the Wookie slave revolts and their resolutions, both the Malicks answering all his questions; my mind remained on the Knights.

       As we were eating lunch later that day. I noticed Velkav and Nokrao laughing and having a mini-food fight on their side of the table. Akela saw me watching and leaned in whispering, “It’s weird right, they aren’t even biologically related and yet they have more sibling camaraderie than the twins. My advice though would be to stay away from them, that camaraderie doesn’t extend to us”. Ish-del then drew her into a conversation on whether to use concussion missiles or proton torpedoes on a Mon Calmari cruiser. Just as I was about to join in on their conversation saying I would use an ion cannon over missiles, Velkav looked over at me. Upon seeing me she stopped throwing food at her brother and gestured for me to come over. I walked over not wanting to piss her off, considering what she had done to Ish-del last night and that he was in fact bigger and more experienced in fist fighting than me. I sat down next to her and they both stared at me for a minute. It was starting to get awkward until, Velkav said, “How has your day been so far?” “Good, I guess. The lesson was interesting I suppose.” Nokrao spoke up then, “Just wait for the physical training, it is the best part of the day.” “Nokrao, just because you like to punch, beat, stab, eviscerate, and a whole other list of synonyms for destroying things. Doesn’t mean everyone does. If newbie, here prefers the lessons there is nothing wrong with that” “Well sister, just because you’re a book worm doesn’t mean he is going to be one”. At this point I could really see what Akela meant about them having a sibling’s camaraderie, it was also at this point I decided taking a middle ground would be wise and said, “I really enjoyed the lesson, but back on Yavin I really enjoyed hunting in the woods, so I agree with both of your modes of thought.” This turned out to be a good course of action, because upon hearing that I actually hunted in the woods Nokrao asked me a litany of questions. Apparently they had literally been stuck in that facility since they got there, the closest they ever got to being outside since then is simulation rooms inside the mountain and they were extremely excited to hear about my woodland adventures with Rolf. I briefly wondered why they were being nice to me, it was so contradictory to what Akela had said, but I dismissed the thought as unimportant and continued conversing with them.  

      Lunch ended rather abruptly and I along with the Malicks ended up having to run to the training room. The rest of our squad mates were already there, Ish-del looking grumpy as ever, the twins were talking to each other and Akela was busy putting her hair into a ponytail. Horvo came in seconds after we did and told everyone to pair off. Ish-del and Akela were in one group, the twins in another, and the Malicks in the third. Since I didn’t have a partner I was paired up with Horvo. The others had practice fights while Horvo simply taught me basic moves, like Snoke he told me that I was a quick study and we moved on to more advanced moves by the end of the first hour. Eventually once Horvo was satisfied with my progress and he moved on to observe others fight, I watched with him. The twins were evenly matched, their fighting tempo was quick with them rarely putting any real force behind their attacks. They also anticipated each other’s moves perfectly, if any blow wasn’t deflected it was because they were landing an identical blow on their twin. Their fight ended with them both on the floor, after they both decided to throw a straight jab at the same time. Ish-del and Akela’s fight was a bit more interesting. It appeared I was right in thinking Akela’s disarming personality, hid a monster underneath. She had let Ish-del land a few blows at the beginning, this made him cocky and he dropped his guard. Akela then threw a litany of punches against his stomach, side, back, and head; whenever he moved his arms to protect a new area she would start pounding on another. However, when Horvo told her to stop, she obeyed leaving Ish-del with a bloodied lip and bruised ribs. Finally came the Malick fight. As I watched the fight I thought Nokrao put more force behind his punches than any of my squad mates. Velkav had a good stance, keeping her center of gravity low, she deflected some hits but others she settled for absorbing. Honestly I didn’t understand how she was still standing, but then I found out Velkav is really the one who punches the hardest amongst my squad mates. Nokrao after throwing a large right hook, which was subsequently deflected, had left a small window of attack. Velkav must have been anticipating this because before he even knew what was happening she was releasing a devastating series of haymakers. Then as Nokrao began to look unsteady she hit him with a quick right upper cut, his head snapping back but he remained standing; that is when she finished off with a roundhouse kick to his chest, effectively knocking the air out of him and knocking him on his back. Velkav was quick to help him up and Nokrao said, “One of these days, I’m gonna win” she in turn laughed at him. 

     Horvo raised his hand after that and said satisfied, “Training is now over. If anyone has a challenge they should issue it now, otherwise you may all go about your day.” “What is a challenge?” I asked. Horvo responded, “If you or any member of your squad wants to work out their issues with another member of the squad then they may issue a challenge. The challenge can vary from hand to hand combat, to a lightsaber duel, to even a few force skilled base competitions” I nodded my head in understanding. The room remained quiet, apparently Ish-del didn’t feel like getting his ass kicked, again. However, just before Horvo dismissed us, Hux and Phasma came into the room behind them were two stormtroopers dragging a man. Hux said, “Little one, Snoke thinks you should practice your mind tricks and we just so happen to need information from this man, do you think you can help us out?” “I would be glad too” I responded. My squad and Horvo backed away as the stormtroopers used the chains on the wall to tie the man back. Phasma turned to me then and said, “Whenever you are ready. We need to know where they plan on hitting our supply convoy” I nodded and looked at the man. They had already beaten him, his face swollen black and blue. I took a few steps forward and began, “Where do they plan to attack the convoy” “You can beat me, you can kill me, but I will never tell you where” he said spiting a mouthful of blood on the floor. I reiterated, “You will tell me” “No I won’t” I could feel my frustration starting to grow, “You will tell me” “I won’t” his voice started to sound strained.  “Tell me” “NO” “TELL ME”. “GET OUT OF MY HEAD, YOU LITTLE BASTARD” he all but screamed. I gave it all I had, _“YOU WILL TELL ME, NOW!”_ He told us everything, where they were going to attack, how many ships they were going to use and what type of weapons they had onboard. My squad mates gave me many congratulations along with a lot of Academy personnel. Later I heard that the unsuspecting rebels were destroyed, with minimal First Order causalities. Hux sent me a black leather collar with a sliver name plate, the name Rolf beautifully inscribed on it, as a thank you. Phasma sent a silver leash.    


	6. The Gauntlet

      One month later. I woke up and looked at the wall clock, it read five fifty-eight. I smiled to myself, beating the alarm was a small victory but a victory none the less. I got out bed slowly, and padded my way across the cold stone floor to the right side of the room, where my dresser was located. Horvo had said today was going to involve some physical activity so I decided it would be best to wear the combat clothes, instead of the more comfortable sith garb. I then turned around and walked directly to the bathroom, throwing my clothes haphazardly on the bed as I passed. By six fifteen I had showered, dressed, checked Rolf’s food bowl, and completed all my other morning routines so I was ready to begin my day. I patted Rolf head and told him I’d be back to take him for a run after Horvo’s activity, the facility may be entirely underground but it is equipped with simulation rooms, one of which is very similar to the forests on Yavin. Nokrao would probably join us, he has made himself my self-appointed physical training partner, it seems as though I spend a third of my free time with him. Another major portion of my time I generally spend with Velkav, we study in the library mostly. And then if I’m not working with either of them, I’ll spend my time tinkering in the workshop; over the years I had become quite adept at fashioning traps for the small animals on Yavin, and now that I have proper guidance and tools I want to see what else I can make. Occasionally when I’m not working with them or fiddling the workshop, I’ll spend time with my other squad mates, talking, play Dejarik or whatever.     

      I exit my room at six eighteen and find Velkav waiting for me. “Don’t push yourself to hard in training today, okay?” she said. I looked at her my eyebrows raised, she wasn’t the type to tell anyone to slack off, ever. So I asked, “Why?” “Just trust me, okay? Eat some energy rich foods at lunch and hold back during training” she said in a tone that left no room for argument. I looked at her quizzically wondering what could be her rationale but nodded my head nevertheless. She gave a nod back and we began making our way to the mess hall. “So what book where you reading yesterday, you were very enthralled by it? Was it that book detailing how to make and manipulate synthetic kyber crystals, again? Am I gonna get another speech about how cool black kyber crystals are?” Velkav asked. “No, no I read that book three times already. The book from yesterday was a codex on some of the rarest and strongest species in the galaxy, did you know there is a rancor, with teeth sharp enough to tear through Madalorian iron like it isn’t even there?” “That is kinda awesome but way more terrifying, I hope I never run into one of those.” “Yeah, I guess. I still kind of want to see one.” “Why?” “So I can kill it of course.” She gave a full hearty laugh at that and then said, “You’ve been spending too much time with Nokrao.” I laughed at that, and we continued to crack jokes all the way to the mess hall.

      Upon arriving in the mess hall, I noticed a lack of officers and briefly wondered where they were. However I was pulled from my thoughts by a growling stomach and quickly got my tray with Velkav, who essentially decided my entire meal putting everything on my tray and assuring me it was for the best. As I sat next to Nokrao, I asked, “You excited about today” he looked startled at first and looked to Velkav who gave him a subtle shake of her head no. He turned to me and said, “I guess, let’s just focus on what Horvo has planned first”. This was strange, Nokrao loved to boast about how he was going to mop the floor with me whenever we had planned a training session for later in the day, but today he seemed nervous. The conversation we had was easy after that but when we got up to leave, Nokrao grabbed my shoulder and held me in place for a second. Looking around to check no one was watching us he leaned in and said, “Make sure you hold back in training today, you want to have a lot of energy left over.” “Why?” “Well if you want any hope of keep up with me on our run, you will need it” he chuckled nervously. I had seen enough people lying to know he was, but I decided whatever the reason it didn’t matter; if both the Malicks, the ones who are willing to dislocate their own shoulders to get out of an opponent’s grapple (which I have seen them both do before), were telling me to hold back then I definitely should.

       The lesson was a fun one, Horvo talked about kyber crystals, the Knights of Ren, and then discussed the history of lightsabers. I was so enthralled by it, that I didn’t notice everyone else in the room watching me. Lunch was much like breakfast, with Velkav putting the most energy enriching foods on my tray and then I had another idle conversation with the Malicks discussing last week’s TIE fighter training exercise. The Academy wants its graduates to be sufficient with any vehicle or weapon they come across in the field, which is why it has such a large vehicle depot. The depot is on a sublevel deep underground, it is miles and miles long, to the point where you have to have transportation just to get to certain areas of it. There are indoor courses, for the land vehicles, which consist of race tracks and the simulation rooms, like the ones I, Nokrao, and Rolf go running in. And then there are two lifts large enough to hold any ship in the depot. The lifts lead to the northern and southern hangers. The hangers’ doors look like the side of the mountain and only lift for preset and approved training exercises. Last week Horvo had taken our squad out, in the latest TIE fighter models, it was so much fun, especially when he let us fire the weapons off at sand dunes. As lunch ended I finally decided to ask Velkav, “What is going, on why are you guys telling me to take it easy during training?” Velkav mumbled a noncommittal answer and started walking faster, before I could go after her however I was stopped by a familiar hand on my shoulder. “Hello, little one, I have heard you have been making me proud” I turned to Snoke with a smile and asked with a shocked and excited expression, “What are you doing here?”. Snoke smiled at me and said he was here to see just how far I had really progressed. I walked with him to the training room and laughed at the bug-eyed open-mouthed expressions that befell the rest of my squad. They were completely stunned as Snoke came around the room and shook each of their hands individually.

      Shortly after that, Horvo came into the room, he said, “Alright today we will be practicing lightsaber fighting”. I looked at him wondering what he wanted me to do, considering I still lacked a lightsaber. Horvo in turned looked at me and said, “Vin, you will be using this” he presented me with a large metallic stick. I looked skeptically at him and then the stick, wondering if he was serious. It was then that Snoke spoke, “Look here little one” and he took the stick and pressed a button on it making it cackle with energy “this can effectively combat a lightsaber, if you look carefully you can see it is based off an old technology used by the” “Magnaguards of the Confederation of Independent Systems, during the Clone Wars” I said, finishing his sentence for him. He smiled at me and nodded handing the stick over to me. Apparently all that extra studying with Velkav was paying off.

       Horvo then paired us off, my first opponent was to be Oocozreso. Oocozreso pulled out one of her llightsabers and held it with her right hand, the other lightsaber she had remain on her belt. Horvo asked, “Oocozreso, is there something wrong with your other lightsaber?” “No, teacher” “Then why aren’t you using it?” Oocozreso looked at the floor and responded, “I want to give him a fair fight”. At this Horvo looked sternly at her and said, “An enemy won’t be so considerate to allow him a fair fight and quite frankly you should never concern yourself with such thoughts, your goal is to win”. She nodded her head and then sent me an apologetic look, when Horvo was pairing up the others. As the fight commenced, Oocozreso and I began to circle each other. I kept my blade up and pointed it towards her, she meanwhile held her right blade up and pointed at me and her left blade was being held backwards, so that the blade was running parallel to her arm and hovering a few inches away from her shoulder. She made the first move, swinging her right lightsaber up and at my head, which I deflected, and then quickly spinning and slashing the left one at my mid-section, I barely had time to dodge. When I had recovered my footing, we again began to circle each other. I made the next move feigning a downward strike and then trying to swipe at her right side at the last minute, she was quick however, and managed to bring both her blades up defensively. I pulled my blade back and dropping to my knees made a full sweep around, hoping to hit the backs of her knees. She sidestepped dodging this attack and then brought both her blades down, I barely put my blade up in time to defend myself. She then began leaning over and putting all her weight behind the blades pressing down, while I strained to keep mine up; that is when I saw my opening and took it, sweeping her legs out from under her with my left leg and rolling out of the way as she fell flat on her face. I quickly got to my knees and rested my blade inches above her neck, asking her to concede, which she did.

        Then Horvo said, “Vin, you will fight me next. If you can block all my attacks, or land a single blow then lightsaber practice will be concluded for the day.” I nodded to him and we both readied ourselves. Horvo pulled out his single bladed lightsaber, turning it on and holding the blade vertically just in front of his nose. I circled him, I had made two complete passes and he had yet to move, so on my third pass when I was directly behind him I lunged at his back. He moved faster than I thought possible and firmly brought his blade down directly on mine, knocking it from my hands. I then dodged a quick follow up swipe he made towards my chest. With Horvo standing between me and my weapon, I quickly tried to figure out what to do. Horvo however didn’t give me much time as he advanced on me swiping at my arms, legs, and head relentlessly. It wasn’t long till I felt the cool stone wall pressing against my back. Horvo lifted his blade high preparing to make a diagonal slash across my torso, I however had finally come up with a solution reaching my hand out, I force-pulled my blade to me. I brought my blade up before Horvo could strike and he was forced to take a step back. The fight waged on like that for several minutes, until I realized that he had said I had to either block all his attacks or hit him, but he never said how long the fight would last. Remembering what the Malicks had told me, I wanted to end the fight sooner rather than later but I also knew I wouldn’t be able to hit Horvo without taking a hit myself. So I waited, deflecting every major blow, until finally he made a stabbing motion towards my left shoulder; I let the blade burn the edge of my shoulder as I pushed my own weapon squarely into Horvo’s chest, the weapon released a large electrical charge on contact. Then Horvo hit the ground, trying to catch his breath. Once he finally caught his breath he looked at me and said, “Nicely done, the fight is over” “Thank you, sir. May I be excused, to go to medical now?”. He looked at me and shook his head no, saying, “You can go to medical after you run the gauntlet.” I looked at him confused and asked “What the hell is the gauntlet” “The gauntlet is when you face off against each of your squad mates in hand to hand combat, if you manage to do well enough, it will qualify you for making your lightsaber, if you fail it will disqualify you for at least another month.”. I looked at him and then looked at the other Malicks, suddenly what they had been saying and doing made sense, they knew about Horvo’s plans to make me run the gauntlet today and they wanted me to succeed.

       Horvo announced that my first opponent would be Ish-del, he then drew a ring on the floor with some white chalk, saying that signified the boundary, if I crossed the boundary it was an automatic fail. We both stepped into the ring, it was about five meters in diameter, and we took up our stances. By watching his previous fights I knew, Ish-del’s preference was to keep his hands up and arms tight to his body, he fought like a boxer which would be difficult to beat except he lacks discipline and often loses his form when he thinks he has an advantage. So I kept my stance lose, gave him a cocky grin and waited for him to mess up. Horvo told us to begin, and immediately Ish-del took a few large steps advancing on me, trying to ensure I had no room to maneuver. I simply kept waiting, my left shoulder still hurt and I tried to shift my stance to ensure he wouldn’t hit that side. Once he was in range he threw two consecutive right handed straight jabs at my face, I easily deflected them. He then tried to throw a left hook, I grabbed his wrist and attempted to use his forward momentum to push him out of the ring. He recovered quickly however and was able to regain his balance before stumbling over the white line. As he got up I decided to taunt him, and get him off his game; I said looking at Snoke, “You see the people I have to fight against, I might as well be fighting a drunken stormtrooper”. Ish-del thankfully took offense to this and made charged at me, shoulders down like he was trying to tackle me to the floor. I in turn had enough time to prepare, and when he reached me I was able to drop to the floor and trip him. When he toppled to the floor I climbed on top of his back and pulled both his arms up, leaving him effectively immobilized, he however refused to give up and the fight only ended when Horvo announced me the winner.

       Next I had to fight Akela, she had a loose fighting stance and would wait till you thought you were winning before she went into full-on attack mode. As we started to circle each other in the ring, I tried to figure out the best plan of attack. After a few minutes I had decided what to do, I walked to the middle of the ring and keeping my arms at my sides. She meanwhile had stopped walking and taken a firm stance on the ground, rooting herself in to place. I then sat down with my legs crossed and my hands resting on the tops of my knees. She was cautious and started to circle me, when she was directly behind me she decided to attack with a large kick directed squarely at the top of my head. I however laid back quickly and brought my hands up to catch her foot before she could pull back, I then twisted her foot so she was forced to face the edge of the ring and I pushed on it with considerable force. She stumbled and put her hands on the ground in front of her to stop herself from going completely outside the ring, but it was too late by that time I had already gotten up. I quickly griped her by the waist and threw her out of the ring. When she landed, I saw her magenta eyes looking very angry at me and she was preparing to step back in the ring till Horvo told her the match was over and she lost.

       Horvo then announced I would fight both the twins at the same time. I formulated a plan deciding that since there were two of them, keeping them in a smaller space where they couldn’t maneuver was the best option, since their main strength came from attacking in unison. So as the match began I quickly advanced on both the twins before they could get very far from their side of the ring. I did my best to keep one of them in between me and the other at all times, because it ensured I wouldn’t be attacked from two sides. Doing this allowed me to quickly dispatch one of them and the second quickly followed. Horvo announced me the clear victor and Snoke said, “I see all your lessons really have been paying off, little one”. I smiled at him; however that smile fell when I realized my next opponent would be one of the Malicks and I became very concerned, considering both of them would probably kick my ass with ease.

     Horvo said, “Your next opponent will be Nokrao, however, unlike the others all you have to do in this fight is stay in the ring for five minutes.” I breathed a sigh of relief at this new rule, I would still try and force Nokrao out of the ring but knowing all I had to do was stay in was reassuring. As the match begun, I found myself squaring up with Nokrao at the center of the ring. He threw the first punch which I blocked but feeling the force behind I decided to win I needed to deflect and redirect his momentum instead of trying to absorb it. He then threw a straight left jab, I dodged and sent my own left fist into his stomach. My fist landed with a solid thud, but Nokrao didn’t seem to notice as he threw his elbow out hitting me in the left shoulder. My shoulder screamed in pain, and I took a few steps back before I realized what I was doing; when I looked back down I say I only had about another two feet of ring left behind me. Nokrao advanced quickly before I could retake lost ground and sent a major left hook my way, I was able to dodge it but I had to take a step back. Now with less than a foot, before I was out of bounds; I decided it was time for a last ditch effort. I threw a right hook which landed against his shoulder, before he could follow up with a retaliatory strike I threw a left uppercut this one miraculously connected with his chin and he took a step back falling to his right knee. I followed up with a solid kick to his face and as he fell to the floor I pinned him. Horvo looking impressed announced me the winner, saying I finished with thirty seconds to spare.

      Finally Horvo announced my last opponent was going to be Velkav and I only had to last three minutes against her. I was glad, because I knew I couldn’t go toe to toe with her. As the match began, I moved to the center of the ring and she circled me. On her second pass through she came at me quickly from my left side, she threw a right hook at my face as a distraction and knocked me flat on my back with a quick sweep of her left leg. I then had to roll to avoid getting my stomach stomped by her right foot, as she relentless followed up her attacks. I remained mindful of where I was in the ring and tried to stay in the center as best as I could as I continued deflecting and dodging her attacks; and then it happened, I saw an opening it was small but it was there. In a split-second decision I decided to take it and threw out my right hand hitting her left side just beneath her ribcage. She was momentarily stunned and in that moment I grabbed one of her wrists, spun her so that her back was against my front, and brought my right arm up to strangle her with my elbow. She struggled against it, and was close to getting free, so I quickly dropped us both to the floor and tried to hold on for the rest of the time. As it turns out at that point there was only ten seconds left, and the match ended with me still holding her. Horvo announced me the winner, Snoke clapped, and I let out a small victory whoop. Horvo then dismissed me saying that he would come get me later so, I could build my lightsaber. I then headed to the medical wing to get my shoulder looked at, promising my squad to meet them in the common area outside our rooms when I was done.

      After promising the medical officers, I would return later to immerse myself in a bacta tank and receiving a bacta bandage in the meantime; I headed back to my squad. I was stopped by Phasma on the way who asked me to follow her, I did. She led me to part of the base I had never been in before and showed me to a large dark brown wooden door. She opened it for me and gestured for me to go inside. As I walked in I saw the room was rectangular shaped and fairly large maybe fifteen feet wide and thirty feet in length, it had a blood red carpet, and I also saw Snoke sitting in a grey fabric chair behind a large black desk, in front of that desk were two smaller grey fabric chairs. Snoke looked at me and said, “Ah, I’m so proud of the progress you’ve made. Come sit I want to talk with you” I obediently crossed the room and sat in one of the chairs. “So, little one, how have you been? Are you enjoying your lessons? What do you think of your squad mates?” “I’ve been great, in fact this last month has been the best of my life. I’m enjoying my lessons, very much. And I like my new squad, even Ish-del even though he can be a pain”. He smiled at me and then continued, “Tell me about them, what are their strengths and weaknesses?” “Well, the twins are crazy fast and they can anticipate each other’s moves perfectly. Seeing them team up against someone is truly a sight to see. Ish-del is okay most of the time, he needs to learn some obedience and respect though. He is too quick to anger and fails to draw strength from that anger, instead it just makes him act irrationally. Akela is a prime example of how anger should be used. She on to it, lets it boil inside her and then releases it when she needs to. And I’m still gauging the Malicks, so far I have noticed that Nokrao trains his body while Velkav trains her mind, and yet she is able to beat him in a fight”. Snoke smiled at my answer and said, “Very good little one, being able to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of your allies will allow you to use them effectively in the future. Now tell me what is your favorite lesson?” I contemplated it for a minute and then answered, “I like it when Horvo teaches us about the Knights of Ren.” “Why?” “Because I find them interesting” “Would you want to lead them?” “Of-course” “Good, because I want that for you too.” I looked at him, excited and happy that he was so supportive. “How, can I?” I asked him. He replied by saying,  “All in good time little one, but suffice it to say that I believe with your pedigree and some more training, I think it is a likely possibility.” We then heard a knock on the door and two officers I didn’t know came in, and Snoke dismissed me saying he had some other business to take care of, but he would come by later to see what lightsaber I built.

      When I made it back to the common room, I found my squad sprawled out on the furniture waiting for me. Akela saw me first and greeted, “Took your sweet time, we were starting to think you got lost” “Sorry, I got held up talking with Snoke” I replied. The squad then started a whole array of questions on what he wanted, and what I had to say in response, but after that was over they all remembered the reason we were meeting up and they began congratulating me on beating the gauntlet on my first go. I asked, “How many times did it take you guys to beat it?” Velkav answered for everyone, “Most of us passed on our third try, I got through on my second. However back when me and Nokrao did it we only had to last three minutes in the ring with Horvo. So the fact that you did it in one is very impressive” Akela broke in there, saying” IMPRESSIVE?!?! He nearly had you beat, that was damn near legendary”. Everyone laughed at that except Velkav, who looked completely unamused. “It is almost like you were distracted, or losing your edge or something sister” Nokrao said with a knowing smirk. His smile broadened when Velkav sent him a death stare. The conversation with the rest of my squad lasted for a few minutes before a stormtrooper informed me, Horvo was waiting for me in the workshop.

       When I arrived I found the workshop’s tables covered in supplies, which included things such as kyber crystals. Horvo turned to me and said, “Choose a type of crystal, we have standard, compressed, and unstable. Standard would be the regular one like Ish-del’s. Compressed would be like Velkav’s, you know her blade is smaller and more maneuverable. And unstable would be like Nokrao’s, you have seen how his sparks with excess energy. Once you have a crystal we can determine what type of lightsaber you want, be it a single or double blade and what to make the hilt out of.” I looked at him and said, “I want to make my own crystal” He looked at me and then looked past me, I turned my head too and saw Snoke standing near the door nodding his head. Then Horvo said “Fine, I can teach you how to create a synthetic crystal later, but as long as we are here you might as well get yourself a hilt.” I carefully looked at the materials, evaluating each and then looking back at him I said, “What I want isn’t here” Horvo again looked at Snoke, who again nodded his head. Sighing Horvo asked “What is it you want” “Rancor bone, from a very special type of rancor” “Tell me what type of rancor and I’ll see what I can do”. Taking a deep breath I answered, “NO” “Why not?” “Because I want to get it myself” “Well how do you suppose you’re going to get it” at this I turned to Snoke and asked, “Can you get me a ship?” Snoke nodded. I then turned to Horvo and said, “I plan on going to Feroxus Prime and getting it myself”.


	7. The Ravager

     “Hold on, you did what now? Are you insane!” I must admit, I was expecting Velkav to be surprised by my actions, but if her current tone while questioning me was any indication she was also a bit angry. “I told Horvo and Snoke that I need to go get the materials for my lightsaber myself, from Feroxus Prime.” I said, taking a few steps away from where she was sitting on the couch trying to distance myself, in case she decided I needed some sense knocked into me. “Feroxus Prime? That name sounds familiar…” she said pensively tapping her chin with her right hand. Realization dawned on her face and she got up from the couch looking at me intently, she growled out, “Isn’t that the planet, where your damn rancor can be found, the one whose teeth can go through Madolrian iron?” I nodded my head and she began stalking towards me, pulling her shoulders up making her small frame appear larger. She stopped about half a foot away from me, looking me directly in the eye, she said, “You. Are. A. Fucking. Idiot.” at this point, I was a bit worried she was literally going to rip my head off “But your our idiot, so we’re all going”. I broke in trying to say, “That’s really not necessary” “Do you want to survive?” “Yes” “Then it is necessary” and with that she marched off in a huff, presumably to inform Horvo the entire squad now wanted to go on the mission.  Akela started laughing then, saying, “Oh this is gonna be so much fun, can’t wait to go kill some shit!! I’m gonna go practice my lightsaber throwing” and with an enthusiastic whoop she jumped over the back of the couch and started running off down a hallway. The twins agreed with Akela that it would be fun, albeit they were far less enthusiastic about showing it and then got up from their chairs and walked into their rooms. Ish-del who had been standing off near the side of the room said, “Don’t expect me to save your ass, if this all goes south” and then he sauntered into his room. Lastly there was Nokrao, who had been sitting on the couch the entire time staring at me intently. I looked at him and asked, “So what do you think?” “I think that, I’ll like seeing the universe after all the years I’ve spent here, I think that you will get what you need, and I think Velkav is going to kick your ass in the near future for taking such an unnecessary risk.” “Why should she care? It is my life to risk” “You are important to her” “What? Why?” He sighed then, and looked me directly in the eye, “For starters you are a member of this squad, and while she might not always show it, her squad mates are important to her. Secondly, you are the only one on this squad besides me that talks to her on a regular basis, everyone else avoids her because she repeatedly kicks their asses in training, it doesn’t matter that she is doing it for their own good, they still hold a grudge. Thirdly she really likes…” he looked thoughtfully at the ground for a moment rolling the words around in his head, “ … she really likes Rolf. If you die on this mission, chances are they’ll take Rolf away.” He then looked at me and said with a smile, “Also if she didn’t consider you important, she would’ve never let you win the gauntlet fight.” I looked at him with wide eyes, saying, “I won the fight, on my own” “No you really didn’t. To be fair, she made it look pretty believable but I know her. And I know she threw the fight”. And with that he walked off saying he was going to bed, leaving me flustered in his wake. I quickly began reassuring myself that I had won by my own strength and merits.  

     After his room door closed, I decided I needed to ensure Rolf got his dinner and was comfortable sleeping in my room alone, for tonight. After all, I needed to get to medical and sleep in a bacta tank, my left shoulder wound still needed fixing after all. However as I filled Rolf’s food bowl, rubbed his belly, and covered him with a few extra blankets for the evening; a nagging thought pervaded my mind. So I sat down on the big black leather chair in the common room and waited, for Velkav. When she arrived, half an hour later, I immediately asked, “Did you throw the fight?” She looked at me confused asking, “What? Really?”. I pressed on, “Did you?” “Of-course I threw the stupid fight, I wanted you to get your lightsaber already; but if I had known you were going to do something so stupid, I would have kicked your fucking ass right then and there!” she said, her voice rising to a yell at the end. It was at this moment that Akela returned, and upon seeing Velkav’s aggressive posture she said, “Vin, what the hell did you do now?” “Nothing” both I and Velkav responded at the same time. “Sure, sure. Well ‘nothing’ better get resolved before we get to Feroxus.” and with that Akela retired to her own room. I looked at Velkav and she stared back at me. Finally I said, “It’ll all be alright, as long as we got each other’s backs alright?” She gave a curt nod in agreement and then walked off into her room, as I turned and headed to medical.   

     One week later, my shoulder was healed and everyone was getting excited for the mission, except Velkav who spent the entire week either practicing with her lightsaber or reading over the codex with information on Feroxus Prime. As I walked into Snoke’s office, he turned in his dark grey chair and looked at me, he said, “Little one, everything is just about ready, Horvo will let you know the specific time, you are heading out but I believe it will be by mid-afternoon at the latest. I however would like to show you your ship before then; does six work for you?” “Yes, sir. That should be fine, thank you for doing this. I know it is a lot” “Don’t concern yourself with that, little one, I’m happy to do it, also feel free to bring your squad mates along to see the ship” I nodded my head in thanks, and walked out when he dismissed me.

     I then headed for the library, deciding I needed to clear the air with Velkav before the mission, over the past week she had started talking to me less and when she did it was more out of necessity than anything else. Along the way I ran into Akela, who gave me a smile and said, “Are you excited or are you fucking excited? I mean just think about it, in a couple of days, you are going to kill a fucking rancor!” Her mood was infectious, because I quickly smiled back at her and said, “Yeah it is going to be glorious, think they’ll let us record it” “Are you kidding me, if they don’t I’ll do it anyway… in fact, I should go grab the equipment now in case they say ‘no’ later. See ya later” and with that she was off bolting down a long hallway. I called after her, “Snoke wants to give me a tour of our ship later, wanna come?” She yelled back that she would as she turned right disappearing down another corridor. “Your friend certainly has a lot of enthusiasm doesn’t she, little one” I turned to see Phasma standing behind me. “Yeah, she is kind of crazy, but hey it works for her, you should see her with a lightsaber” Phasma chuckled and said, “I’m sure I will someday. Anyhow, where are you headed?” “The library” “I’ll escort you” “That’ll be great, thanks”. As we headed to the library we fell into an easy conversation, she asked me if I had been keeping up with my blaster practice on top of all my sith work and I told her I had. She then began to tell me all the weak points she knew where on a rancor, I curious eventually asked her, “Have you ever killed a rancor?” “I along with a battalion of my men killed one once. It was a tough fight, the monstrosity stood five meters tall and with one swipe of its arm it could kill a dozen of my men. The fight only lasted about six minutes, but I lost forty-three men that day and many others were injured”. I looked at her and asked, “Do you think, I’m making a mistake going to Feroxus?” She stopped walking with me then, placing both her hands on my shoulder she turned my body so she was looking directly at me. She said, “If this is something you really do need, then it can’t be a mistake. I know you will succeed” and with a quick nod she turned me back around and we continued down the hallway to the library.

     As I entered the library, Phasma took her leave saying she would be at the shooting range if I wanted to join her later. I turned to see an unusual sight, Nokrao was in the library. He hated this place, saying it was too stuffy and boring for him, but here he was sitting in a chair looking intently at his sister who was standing in front of him, her back to the door. Nokrao, upon seeing me, said something to Velkav and made a move to get up. He then walked around his sister and over to me, once he was a foot or so away from me he whispered, “She is going to lecture you on what species inhabit Feroxus, which ones you should run from and what type of adaptations they have” as he walked out he yelled back, “Have fun!” “I’ll try” I yelled back. As I turned around though, I quickly figured out this wouldn’t be a fun talk at all. Velkav was giving me a serious glare and gestured for me to sit in the seat Nokrao had just got up from, it was an uncomfortable light brown wooden chair. As I sat down Velkav looked at me and said, “You need to take this seriously, we are going to the Premordia system, a system so hostile and untamable that nobody lays claim to it.” I broke in there and said, “The Premordians do” “The Premordians are a barely sentient species, their tribal warriors still use spears for crying out loud” “Well that just means they won’t be a threat, right?” She narrowed her eyes at me then and said, “They are the size of Wookies, they have reportedly torn men apart with nothing but their hands, and they paint their scales to blend into the surroundings like ghosts. They are a threat” I looked dejectedly at the floor and she then proceeded to run through every species we could encounter on the planet’s surface from rathtars to nox-tur sukores. Once she was satisfied that I knew of all the possible threats she dismissed me. I looked at the time and noticed I should probably start heading to Snoke’s office for my tour of the ship and turning to Velkav, I asked, “Snoke is going to give me a tour of our ship, want to come?” She nodded yes and we set off down the hallway, I briefly wondered if I had time to tell everyone else considering I had only asked Akela and Velkav, but upon voicing this concern Velkav informed me, since I had told Akela she would have likely asked everyone already.

     As it turned out Velkav was right, because as we approached Snoke’s room we saw our entire squad standing there waiting for us. As we approached each of my squad mates gave me a short nod as a hello, Akela was bouncing on the balls of her feet, dying to get a move on. I knocked on Snoke’s door and had to wait only a few seconds before he opened it and said, looking at his clock, “Right on time. Good, good. Now are you ready to see your new ship” “Yes we are all very excited to see our new ship”. As I said this he cocked his head to the side, and said smiling, “It is YOUR ship, not your squads. It belongs solely to you, you understand that right?” at this my eyes went wide but I nevertheless nodded my head to show I understood. Ish-del huffed in the background, crossing his arms; clearly he still didn’t enjoy the fact I was Snoke’s favorite. However neither I nor Snoke paid him any heed and we all set off towards the hangar.

     As the hangar doors opened Snoke walked in first, he turned off to the right and turned around, looking at all of us. He then pointed behind him to a large transport ship behind him, saying, “This is your ship, little one. It is a heavily modified AEG-77 Vigo” I looked at him and said, “That doesn’t look like a First Order ship” “That is because it is not. No this class of ship is mostly used by smugglers and pirates, in fact it is known for being a favorite of the Black Sun syndicate”. I looked at him and asked, “Why would we be using a ship with that kind of reputation?” “Because, little one, the space between Korriban and Feroxus Prime is held by both pirates and New Republic forces. And while it wouldn’t be a problem to dispatch the pirates, I don’t want the New Republic to know how powerful we are yet. So to avoid this we are sending you in ships unaffiliated with the First Order”. I mulled over this information, and then asked, “You said ships, are there more going with us?” “Yes there are, lets see there will be two GR-75 medium transport ships, one holds the heavy equipment you’ll need and the other has had its cargo space converted to bunks and will contain the bulk of your forces. Then there will be a dozen Rihkxyrk assault fighters acting as your escort and leading that escort Horvo will be flying a Vaksai starfighter. Now come on, let’s take a closer look at your ship.

     We approached the AEG-77 Vigo and Snoke began speaking, “We have replaced the six laser cannon turrets with a prototype heavy rotary laser cannons, four mounted on the top and two on the bottom. The new armament has a much higher rate of fire, than normal laser turrets, without sacrificing damage output. The two forward mounted laser cannons have also been replaced, one is now a proton torpedo launcher and the other is now a small ion cannon. And all of these weapons are running on our latest computer matrixes, to allow for synchronized fire solutions against multiple targets.” He walked into the ship, through the open cargo bay doors and led us through the ship. He showed us the cargo hold and pointed to a small room in the corner and led us to it. He opened the door saying, “This is the generator room, normally this ship doesn’t have a generator but we put this one in, because the guns we installed take a bit more juice than the old ones did and because it let us add a shield generator as well. Now the shields may not be as good as a star destroyer but you’d be hard pressed to find a ship this size with anything as good.” He then closed the door and led us to one elevator, he pointed to another on the other side of the room and told Ish-del, the twins, and Akela to use that one and go to level two. As we got into the elevator I asked Snoke, “How many levels does this ship have?” “Only three, little one”. As we stepped out of the elevator on our side I looked across the room and saw the rest of my squad emerging from theirs. Snoke then walked to the middle of the room, which was filled with couches and other furniture and announced this was the recreation room, he also pointed to the six doors on each side of the room and said those were living quarters, he then went on to explain that one had been turned into a medical room filled with four full bacta tanks. After we all tested the furniture out a bit to make sure it was comfy and took a peek into the living quarters, Snoke led us down a short hallway to the back of the ship. He opened another door and we all saw a large glass window, he told us it was the observation room. We stood there for a few minutes but since we were still in the hangar the view quickly became boring and the tour moved on. Snoke walked back through the recreation room, opening a door just opposite the hallway leading to the observation room. Through that door he showed us the fully equipped engineering room, he turned to me once we were inside this room and said “This way you can start working on your lightsaber as soon as you get what you need.” I smiled at him and nodded my agreement, I also thanked him for such a kind consideration. He then instructed us to separate again as he walked back to the elevator, he pushed the button for level three. We stepped out into a relatively small empty square room. He pointed to two doors at the back of the room and said those were the last two living quarters, generally saved for the captain and the pilot. He then walked to the door opposite of those two and opened it. We followed him onto a large command bridge, everyone was in awe of what they saw, especially Akela who looked like she was about to wet herself as she surveyed the panels and weapon systems. Snoke then turned to me and said, “So what do you think?” “I love it” I said, and I quickly moved giving him a hug. He patted my back chuckling. We spent a few more minutes on the bridge till Snoke told us, “While I’m glad you all like the ship, you need to leave it for now. It is eight fifteen and you need to head to the mess hall for dinner” when it looked like we were going to argue he said, “The ship will still be here tomorrow. Now go, you are all still young and growing, you need to eat to grow big and strong.” We all nodded our heads, remembering we were in fact children. (The twins were eight, Akela, Velkav, and I were all nine, Nokrao was ten and Ish-del was eleven.)

     As we walked to the mess hall, Akela walked up next to me and said, “Congratulations on your ship of death. It was awesome” I laughed and asked, “Really ship of death that’s what you’re calling it?” “Well what are you calling it?” she asked. I looked at her and then looked back at Velkav and asked, “Don’t all ships have a name, what was that one’s?” Velkav looked at me and said, “Ships do have names, but I never saw any indicator for that ship’s name” “That’s because Snoke wants Vin to name it, did he forget to mention that?” Hux said as he approached us coming from the elevators with Horvo at his side. “No, I guess he forgot” I replied. Hux smiled at me and said, “He has a lot on his mind of late, but I assure you that he wants you to name the ship… So, got any ideas” I thought about it for a moment, trying to think; I however couldn’t come up with anything and I looked to Velkav for help. She waited a minute before she walked closer and leaned in whispering, “The Ravager” into my ear. I immediately loved the name and relayed it to Hux. He looked at me and said, “That is a fine name, and with the amount of firepower we put on that thing it should be a fairly accurate name as well. Now if you’ll excuse us we just have to go over a few mission details with Snoke” I nodded my head and waved my farewell to him and Horvo as they walked off towards the hanger. After that we all meandered our way to the mess hall and as we sat eating we all began talking about how much fun this trip would be, even Velkav who had been so worried before seemed to relax a bit, she even smiled. When dinner was over we all retired for the evening, checking our bags to ensure we packed everything, we all then called it an early night in the hopes of being well rested for our big adventure tomorrow.  

     The next morning we all awoke at the usual time as we walked out of our rooms we saw Horvo waiting for us with another man, the other man wore shiny black stormtrooper armor, his hair cut very short, on his right shoulder was a red shoulder pauldron that started near his collar bone and ended at his elbow, and he was holding his helmet in between his right arm and his body, the helmet was also black but it had three thin red lines running vertically down from the right eye. Horvo said, “I need to go make sure everything is in order and join the fighter escort, but I wanted to introduce you all to captain Fazisor. He will be leading a personal protection detail for you all. Now if you’ll excuse me.” And with that Horvo walked off leaving captain Fazisor with us. I was the first to speak to him, saying “So captain how many men are you in charge off?” “Twenty” he replied. At this Oarukdakuf gaped, “Only twenty” she said “what happens if we actually get in trouble on this mission, and we only have twenty guys?” “Well if that happens, we get to have some serious fun, I can’t wait” Akela broke in, in her usual enthusiastic manner. Fazisor then gave a short “Ahem” and waited for us all to look at him before saying, “I lead twenty men but they are your personal protection detail. There are upwards of two-hundred and fifty stromtroopers in total going on the mission. The rest however are under the command of captain Stultur.” “Why send two captains?” I asked him. “Because with two one can focus on taking out hostiles and the other can worry about keeping you guys alive” he replied. “Hey, we aren’t useless you know” Ish-del said. Akela and the twins nodded their agreement. “I know, but the supreme leader personally asked me to protect you all and keep you alive, so that is what I’m going to do, even if you don’t need it.” Fazisor said. Velkav walked over behind me then and said, “Look inside his head, in a minute I’m going to ask him a question and I want to know what he really thinks” I gave her a short nod, indicating I would do it. She then turned to him and asked, “So who is the better captain you or Stultur?” “We both have very different methods, I would say I might have a bit of an edge on him but it is not exactly like I’m unbiased” **“Stultur is an idiot, the only reason he ever made captain was because his late father secured the position for him.”** “Anyway I think we should all be heading to the mess hall now, I need to go over mission details with all of you to make sure we are on the same page. As he began to lead us down the hallway to the mess hall, Velkav came over to me and asked, “So what was he thinking?” “He doesn’t like Stultur at all and he doesn’t think he deserves to be a captain” “Interesting… guess we’ll just have to see for ourselves.”

     Breakfast was brief, Fazisor ran over mission parameters with us like what to do if we got separated from the group, what species we were likely to encounter, and other stuff like that. He also introduced us to the rest of his men, who all also wore black armor with red lines under the right eye. I asked him, “So the shoulder pauldron marks you as the officer?” he nodded his head. I continued, “So why do you all wear black armor and why do your helmets have those red lines?” “Oh that is a simple one, the black armor is to show we are special operators, meaning we go on strange but important missions like this one on a fairly regular basis, and the red marks just show that we are all part of the same squad, nothing more than that” he replied. We all continued to eat breakfast, Fazisor then told us as soon as we were all done we could head to the hangar and do final preparations before heading out. As soon as he said this Akela began scarfing down her food like she was starving, honestly I thought she was going to dislocate her jaw with how large her bites were. Everyone else just ate at the usual speed, except Ish-del who while maintaining eye contact with Akela ate her food as slowly as possible. Akela begged “Please, please, please hurry the fuck up” Ish-del however maintained his slow pace, with a large toothy grin. “Oh I swear, I’m going to issue a challenge when we get back and I’m so gonna kick your ass” Akela said. “Bring. It. On.” Ish-del replied. At this point Velkav had enough of this childishness and took Ish-del’s tray from him and proceeded to dump it in the trash can. “What the fuck Velkav, I just wanted to mess with Akela, why would you do that?” said Ish-del in a confused and slightly angry tone. “Because, we all want to get to the mission already and you we holding all of us up. Mess with her on your own time” Velkav replied in a cool voice. When it looked like Ish-del was going to get up and start a fight with her Nokrao got up and, towering over Ish-del, cracked his knuckles. Ish-del got the message and decided it wasn’t worth it. As we all got up to leave I got curious about what Fazisor was thinking and decided to take a look. **“So not only am I going to have to keep these kids safe from the animals, I’m going to have to keep them safe from each other too… great, well this should be fun”**. I chuckled lowly to myself as we walked, knowing he was wrong because while we might not always get along but we are a squad and that meant only we were allowed to kick each other’s asses.

     The hangar was bustling with activity like usual as we walked in. A man in a long grey coat, kind of like Hux’s greeted us saying, “My name is captain Stultur and if you listen to me, we should be able to get through this mission quickly and I can get back to my more important duties.” I could already tell I wouldn’t like this guy, his hair was blonde and slicked back, his nose literally upturned at us, and he held himself with all the pomp and circumstance a man can muster. He then walked onboard the ship with us, apparently Hux had told Snoke what I wanted to name it because The Ravager was sprawled in big red block letters on the side of the ship. He took us to the recreation room and proceeded to briefs us on our mission, at this point we had already been briefed on the mission dozens of times, but his briefing was by far the most vague and confusing. When it was over I had to quietly ask captain Fazisor if it was the same mission or what. He laughed, looked at me, and said, “Yes it is the same mission. Briefings just aren’t his strong suit. But don’t worry me and my men will make sure you get your rancor bone before this is all said and done.” Stultur then said we should get underway and that he was going to the bridge. Fazisor followed him thinking, **“I should make sure he plots the right course, be a shame for us all to die before we even make it to the planet.”** Fazisor’s men then started to lounge around in the recreation room and set up cots in the observation room, there hadn’t been enough beds for everyone and while there was room on the other ships, Fazisor insisted on staying close to us.

     In order to get to the Premordia system we had to make five separate jumps, because there were a lot of nebulas and hazardous areas of space we needed to avoid. I was on the bridge for the beginning of the first jump, however I wandered off after the first half-hour. The jump continued for a few hours and when we came out of hyperspace we were still in First Order controlled space. The second jump was longer it lasted almost seven hours and when we came out of it we were entering into New Republic space. Akela, Velkav, Ish-del, and I were on the bridge when we came out of hyperspace and we were greeted by New Republic gunships off our forward bow. There were maybe ten or so heavy gun boats and then a few fighter squadrons, overall this checkpoint seemed to be heavily fortified. They hailed us on all channels, asking “What is your business in this sector and why does it require so much protection?” Stultur made a move to respond but Fazisor beat him to it, giving them some BS about us being spice traders and we needed the protection because we were selling it in Hutt space. The New Republic took a minute before responding to us, probably debating the likelihood of the story and whether or not to detain us for further questioning. In that minute both Akela and Ish-del began advocating for us to open fire first and kill all them right now. I had to admit that it wasn’t a terrible idea, if the New Republic decided to board one of our vessels and saw stromtroopers were would be in some serious shit, right now we were in violation with the Galactic Concordance and that would not be good. However they hailed us shortly thereafter and told us to be on our merry way and they even wished us safe travels. The third jump lasted nearly twelve hours and most of us slept through it excluding the pilot, of course. When we came out of hyperspace that time, there were no republic forces at all, I asked Fazisor why and he replied, “Because the New Republic has a finite amount of resources and they believe the most efficient use of those resources is setting up random moving check points throughout their territory. Honestly, it is not a terrible way to do things but it does leave them a tad vulnerable”. I nodded my head to him and we all prepared for the our shortest jump, it should only last half an hour and it entire purpose was to avoid a black hole field, the gravity distortions could cause havoc with a ships navigation computer even from far away so we were giving it a wide berth.

     We made the jump no problem but when we came out of hyperspace we were greeted by six miy’til starfighers and their own AEG-77 Vigo all bearing Black Sun insignias on their forward bows, they hailed us over the coms, “The Black sun cometh down…”. “What the hell does that mean” Akela asked. “It’s a challenge code, they want to make sure we are with them.” Ish-del replied. “Do you know the answer?” Fazisor asked. “No, I have never heard this one before” Ish-del replied. “Well then I guess we should get ready for a fight, Vin you give the order” Fazisor said, looking at me. “What? Why do I give the order?” “Because this is your mission” “No it is my mission and I think we should try and guess the passcode” Stultur interrupted. He then instructed the communications specialist to reply with the white moon cometh up before anyone could stop him. We waited a few seconds to see if he had guessed right, and predictably he had guessed wrong. Before we could warm up the weapon systems Black Sun fighters were already whooshing past our ship going to attack the GR-75s first, while their AEG-77 Vigo engaged our fighter craft. Our fighters in turn scattered as fast as they could but not before two were blown to bits. Stultur looked stunned and Fazisor was simply watching me, seeing what I would do. “Train all weapons on that AEG and fire when ready, we can worry about the fighters later.” I yelled in my most authoritative voice. I then instructed our fighter to get in a V formation behind Horvo, do a quick pass across the AEG and then engage the miy’tils. They did so beautifully, knocking out one laser turret on the top of the AEG and then disengaging without sustaining any casualties. By this time the AEG’s fire was trained on us but The Ravager’s shields were holding up nicely. Once we were able to open up all the rotary cannons at once their ship was torn apart in seconds, we didn’t even need the proton torpedoes or ion cannon. We then turned the ship to defend the GR-75s. They had lost two of theirs to our fighters but the four that remained we aces, dodging every shot our fighters made and returning fire of their own destroying a few, even Horvo’s ship looked damaged and he was an amazing pilot. “Alright boys let’s see what this weapons matrix can do, track and engage all targets when ready” I said. It took a minute to lock onto all their fighters but once we had it was glorious. One rotary cannon would track them and force them to move into the fire of another, they were all dispatched in two minutes, the last guy tried to surrender over the coms channel, but The Ravager takes no prisoners.

     In the end we lost half our fighter escort, one GR-75 was heavily damaged but still space worthy and the remaining ships had all received at least some superficial damage, except for The Ravager whose shields managed to block every attack. “That was GREAT can we do it again please, please” Akela said, jumping up and down on the bridge. Everyone looked at her like she was crazy and she stopped jumping, mumbling, “You guys are no fun”. Fazisor then turned to me and said, “Nicely done, you might just have what it takes to be a commander one day”. Stultur then cleared his throat loudly and said, “I had it all under control” he then walked out of the room, saying he needed to get his things together for the trip down to the planet’s surface. Nokrao leaned into my ear after that and said, “Stultur is probably changing his pants, brown isn’t First Order regulation after all”. Fazisor then ordered the pilot to plot the last jump of the journey. The jump only lasted two and half-hours and when it was over and we went back onto the bridge we saw the Premordia system for the first time. There were two planets in this system Feoxus Prime was the larger of the two, it was closer to the sun, and looking at its surface I could discern three large continents and a few smaller islands. The other planet, Feroxus Minor, was further off and I could not see it clearly but from what I read it was nothing more than an ice planet. There were three moons orbiting Feroxus Prime of varying sizes and colors, they were red, blue, and green. As I looked out upon this world, I could not wait to claim the treasures that it held for me.


	8. Feroxus Prime

      My squad and I along with captain Fazisor were surveying the scans we had taken of the planet’s surface using the long range sensors specially outfitted on The Ravager, trying to determine the best place to land and set up camp. “Prepare all hands, inform the rest of the fleet we will be landing” captain Stultur told the crew over the intercom. “What does he think he is doing?” I asked captain Fazisor, who only grunted in response and then signaled for me to follow him as he went to the elevator. As we walked onto the bridge captain Stultur was instructing the pilot where to land. Much to our dismay Stultur had unilaterally decided to land in a small clearing in the middle of the woods near a cliff, he then proposed to set up camp against the cliff and leave our ships nearly two hundred yards away. But by far his worse decision was the fact that he wanted to land immediately at this location. Even though in less than two hours it would be night, and this planets rotation lasted seventy-two hours, meaning that we would be stuck in our camp for an entire thirty-six hours before daybreak. We tried to tell him there were better locations but he was having none of it saying that his location was in a prime spot and would allow us to find the target faster. Then Fazisor tried to reason with him, saying, “We can land there but let’s just wait for the planet’s next rotation, we can’t search at night and we don’t want to spend any more time on the surface than we have to” Stultur countered with, “If we set up a camp immediately, then we can spend the night and at first light we can start the search; it will maximize efficiency”.  Fazisor then said, “My job is to protect these kids, I believe the best way to do that is to remain in orbit for the time being at least” “That is all well in good captain but my job is to find them their target and me and my men will be going to the ground to do just that. If you want to remain in orbit and run the risk of getting attacked by pirates then you can take the ship back up after we have I have gotten off on the ground”. I then spoke up then saying, “There aren’t any pirates out here, why would they come here?” Stultur looked at me in a condescending fashion and spoke in his haughty tone saying, “Perhaps they might be pursuing whoever killed their friends or they might use this as a shortcut or a bypass for certain checkpoints”. I was about to explain that the Black Sun syndicate would not know about their losses for some time. As well as the fact that this system was completely out of the way and couldn’t possibly be used as a shortcut or to bypass a checkpoint because there were no checkpoints in the Hutt space which encompasses this system. Stultur walked away from me and dismissed me with a wave of his hand. Fazisor then whispered to me, “Pick your battles kid, he might be making a mistake but we need his men. At least if we are on the ground too, we can ensure he doesn’t screw up too badly.” I nodded my head in agreement and let him lead me back to the recreation room, where I prepared along with the rest of my squad and our protection detail.

      We landed on the planet surface, the jungle was very dense around us and we had been lucky there was enough room to land all the ships in the small clearing, the sun was already well into its descent, the red moon already appearing on the opposite horizon, and maybe two hundred yards away to the north was another slightly smaller clearing situated next to a large cliff that looked to run for miles and miles in either direction, that clearing was the one which Stultur wanted to set up camp at. Stultur said we would use the cliff as one side of our camp’s perimeter. He then ordered his men to set up the portable fence on the three other sides. The fences was extremely high tech, it consisted of a few dozen metallic pillars maybe one foot by one foot, it was nine feet high, and on the pillars were small cylindrical devices spaced every five inches or so running from the top to bottom, these cylindrical bits emitted an intense, light blue, energy beam when all the pillars were lined up. Each pillar had a control panel on it, allowing us to turn off a section of the fence in case we needed to get out of camp, but still wanted to maintain the overall integrity of our perimeter. Stultur then made sure all the automated turrets, portable towers, and gun emplacements were pointed away from the cliff towards the jungle. I asked Fazisor, “Where is all this equipment coming from?” He replied, “It was from one of the GR-75s. Snoke wanted to ensure the mission was a success so he gave us plenty of supplies. He even gave us a few vehicles such as the new AT-ST models, a new type of repulsor tank, and a few speeders, but all of those were lost in the pirate fight, the compartment that held them was damaged and they were sucked out into space” “Well that sucks” “Yeah but it could be worse kid, they could have hit the compartment with our food rations, or our extra ammunition, or our perimeter gear, I mean could you imagine trying to spend the night here without this fence” he said indicating the fence. Then as if to prove a point he picked up a nearby rock and tossed it at one of the beams, it vaporized; he whistled then went on to say, “Nothing is gonna get through that”.     

      Once the camp was all set up I began to wander through it taking stock of it all. The majority of the camp’s space was taken up by twelve tents, one was for me and my squad another was for the officers, such as captain Stultur and Fazisor, along with lower ranking officers like sergeants who worked under them, and Horvo. One was set aside as the armory, because while all stormtroopers were required to sleep with their gear nearby the armory allowed us to store extra ammunition and larger more unique guns, like flamethrowers and rocket launchers. Another was set aside for the mess hall, because it doesn’t matter who you are, an army marches on its stomach. The other eight tents were for the stormtroopers. We had two-hundred and fifty seven men in camp, ranging from stormtroopers, to pilots, to maintenance guys. Night rolled in quickly once camp was finished being set up, Stultur assigned the men shifts to ensure we always had someone on guard; Fazisor double checked those shifts to make sure Stultur didn’t mess up.

      I was currently eating dinner in the mess hall with my squad, Horvo and captain Fazisor had already retired for the evening wanting to get as much sleep as they could before the shit hit the fan. Horvo told us he would forgo sleeping in the officers’ tent and instead be sleeping with the ships, to ensure no more harm comes to them. Akela turned to me with her regular smile and said, “So Vin you ready to kill some shit, or are you really ready to kill some shit” Nokrao began laughing at that and said, “And Velkav thinks I think too much about fighting” Velkav hit him in the shoulder and said, “You do, and I still have hope you can learn better…Akela however is a lost cause” We all laughed at that and Akela said, “Yeah, I have no shame about that though soooooo whatever. Now back to my original question Vin are you excited” “Yes, I’m excited. To think I’ll get my lightsaber in a few days” I replied. “Well you could have had your lightsaber over a week ago, if you weren’t so full of yourself that you refused to use Horvo’s materials” Velkav countered with a teasing tone and light smirk. “I’m still betting he ends up as rancor dung in a couple of days” Ish-del said. “And I will look forward to seeing you tell Horvo he is the biggest idiot in the universe and challenging him to an arm wrestling contest, when you lose” Nokrao said. I looked at Nokrao then and said, “You’re betting on my life?!?” He looked at me defensively and said, “Hey man, I’m betting on you winning. It’s a good thing, shows I got faith in you”. Velkav rolled her eyes at this, while Akela began demanding they let her in on the bet. Dinner ended and as we walked out of the mess hall I looked up noticing the red moon approaching its zenith, signaling that the night was just beginning. The tent set up for us was spacious enough that we were all able to change into our sleepwear with privacy relatively easily. We were all prepared for bed, wearing the same type of black pajama pants and white tank tops, Akela and Velkav had both put their hair up in a simple single ponytail. So we all said goodnight to each other and climbed into our identical beds, I pulled Rolf up close next to me, and we all went to sleep.

      I awoke startled from my dream, I immediately noticed something felt wrong. It wasn’t the pitter patter of rain against the plastic tent, it wasn’t the low howl of wind I could hear outside the tent flaps, it was something more intangible: the night air had shifted there was something there I could sense it. Velkav woke up seconds after me with a fright and she was shortly followed by the rest of our squad; we all agreed then that something was definitely wrong. We didn’t bother putting on shoes as we stepped out of our tents cautiously, the wet dirt was cold and clung to the bottom of our feet. The camp was pitch black except for a few roving spot lights that swept through, lighting up small areas for only a few seconds, a light rain had started as we slept and a small breeze could be felt running in between the tents. We had all agreed to head to officer’s tent first and tell Fazisor about the disturbance, and see what he thought we should do. I pulled Rolf close to my side, holding on tight to his silver leash as we slowly made our way through camp. I was only about twenty feet from our tent’s entrance, when I noticed the men in the guard towers were missing. A few seconds after this realization, I saw what did it as a spotlight streaked over a nox-tur sukores, an arachnid species native to this planet, it stood a full meter off the ground and was at least 2 meters in radius; currently its fangs were digging into a stormtrooper, the paralysis venom doing its job as the man lay there helpless. Akela, of course, was the first to turn on her lightsaber and rush the beast. As she approached one of its eight black eyes trained in on her and soon the creature was rearing up on it back four legs and aggressively swinging its front four at her in that primal way which said back off. Akela however didn’t listen and with two quick upward strikes from her double sided lightsaber the spider lost his four front legs, she then gave a firm kick to its center sending it sprawling on its back, she finished it off with one solid vertical chop down its center and the beast was left in pieces.

      She then turned back with a triumphant look on her face saying, “Well that wasn’t so hard” Velkav responded, “You weren’t paying attention during any of the briefings were you?!? Nox-tur sukores are pack hunters”. And as Velkav said that another spotlight shined over the cliff face revealing dozens of spiders coming down into the camp. “Nox-tur sukores, nox-tur sukores, everyone get up we are under attack” Velkav yelled at the top of her lungs. Stormtroopers started coming out of their tents their blasters ready, firing on the spiders who had already made it into camp circling them and concentrating fire on them. Sometimes the stormtroopers won flawlessly other times the spiders took a man or two with them. Akela then looked at all of us, and she had that look in her eye which spelt trouble, she said, “Come on, let’s have some fun” and with a war cry she sprinted towards the cliff face. I and the rest of my squad followed her, hoping we could keep her from doing anything too crazy. She strikes and slashes three spiders without ever breaking stride removing the legs and pedipalps, leaving them wounded and vulnerable for us to finish off. She stopped just short of the cliff face, pulled back her right arm holding her lightsaber and then threw it with a perfect arc. The lightsaber boomeranged across the cliff face cutting at least a dozen spiders from the wall, before returning to her. It was then that the stormtroopers having finally dispatched all the spiders in camp, began firing at the ones on the cliff. The spiders in turn having lost the element of surprise began hurling themselves from the cliff, jumping as far as they could into camp. Chaos ensued, Akela kept throwing her lightsaber like a boomerang, while Nokrao and Ish-del were sprinting to every spider that fell and finished them off. The twins fell back and tried to protect the stormtroopers from the spiders jumping into camp. Velkav and I decided to go to the officer’s tent and get Fazisor, because we had no idea how to end this battle as more and more nox-tur sukores kept pouring over the cliff.

      As we made our way to the officer’s tent, two nox-tur sukores jumped in front of us. I pulled my blaster and fired a few rounds at one of their abdomens, Rolf ran up and bit into one its front legs pulling hard trying to tear it off, while Velkav engaged the other. The spider I was fighting reared up its front leg with such force it sent Rolf flying off in another direction, I couldn’t worry about that now however so I continued to fire my blaster into it. As that spider finally fell to the ground however I felt a sharp tug against my leg and fell accidently dropping my blaster. A third spider hand landed behind us and looking down at my leg, I could see it had just ensnared me with an organic thread coming from its spinnerets. It pulled me back hard, through the muddy ground drawing me closer and closer to it. It took less than twenty seconds before I was trapped right in front of it, then just as the spider reared up preparing to dig its fangs into me a Velkav’s lightsaber pierced through its head. It fell on top of me with a solid thunk and Velkav ran over, she grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me out from under the carcass with all her strength. Before she could retrieve her lightsaber however yet another spider jumped on top of its body, we scrambled back on our hands and knees desperately trying to put distance between us when another spider jumped over us and landed behind us. Both spiders began to slowly close in on us, I looked at Velkav, who always had an answer and grew scared when I saw her eyes were wide with fear. I could hear the battle continuing to wage on around us, blaster fire, men’s screams, the dying screeches of the spiders, the hisses they made before attacking, I could even hear Akela making her victory whoop repeatedly as she undoubtedly continued to successfully boomerang her lightsaber. It was then that I knew we could die right then and there and no one would notice till this was all over. It was then that I realized no one was going to save us. It was then that I resolved not to die, and with all the strength I could muster I put my hands up and yelled, “ _LEAVE US ALONE!!_ ” My world faded to black shortly thereafter and I fell into a world of deafening silence.

      When I awoke it was in my squad’s tent, Velkav was sleeping on her side with her head on my shoulder, in between us lay a lightly injured Rolf one of his legs had been wrapped up in gauze. I looked around the room and was about to get up when Fazisor walked in, he looked at me and smiled saying, “That girl has refused to leave your side” indicating Velkav. I ignored his comment for the time being and asked, “How are we still alive?” He looked at me and his smile grew, “That was all you kid, I mean I could see you were in trouble from where I was and I was coming to help you and all, but I probably would have been too late. So imagine my relief when I heard you yell ‘Leave us alone’ and all the spiders, in the camp, on the cliff, everywhere decided to retreat.” I looked at him and said, “That was kind of my last ditch effort, so I’m glad it worked too” “Yeah, I figured as much. After it happened you passed out, that was several hours ago” “Is it light yet?” “Sorry, but no. The blue moon has risen though and it looks to be approaching its apex in the sky, so good news is we are about half way through the night by now.” I looked at him and nodded, he then said, “I figure you’re still feeling kind of weak, so how ‘bout I go get you some food?” I again nodded my head and he disappeared out of the tent. Then all of the sudden Velkav spoke, apparently she had woken up in the last few minutes, “Don’t ever scare me like that again” I looked at her confused asking, “What?” Releasing a long sigh, she elaborated, “When you passed out I thought you died, so don’t you ever scare me like that again” I laughed and said, “Okay, I will try not to die in the future, happy?” She hit me in the back of the head, saying, “I’m serious” I looked at her a seriously said, “Okay, I promise to try and not scare you like that again” “Good” she said sitting up “Oh and one more thing” she leaned in and gave me a quick peck on the cheek “Thank you for saving my life” and with that she quickly got up and left the tent.

      Sometime later Fazisor brought me my food and told me about how the camp redid some of its security so now that the automated guns and other security systems covered the cliff face as well. He then went on to tell me that the medics had looked over Rolf and said he would make a full recovery the only reason he had the gauze wrapped around his leg is because he sustained a few superficial scratches when he fell and he also sprained his ankle. Fazisor then left and a couple of minutes later Nokrao came into the tent smiling at me. He said, “So hero, how’s it going?” I smiled at him saying, “Pretty alright I guess. How are things out there?” “Oh same old same old, the squad has been walking the perimeter and wandering about camp for a few hours now.” “Why aren’t you guys in here resting” “Adrenaline, probably, a lot of us are still wide awake. Also Velkav said we had to stay out, something about us disturbing you as you rested and you needing it more than us or something. We decided not to argue with her since she had that murder-y look in her eye” “It’s fine you can tell the others they can come back in if they want” “Alright, I’ll be back in a minute then” as he turned to leave however I called out, “Wait I want to ask you something” he turned back around and looked at me, clearly waiting for my question. “Your sister, is she the affectionate type?” “Why do you ask?” “She kissed my cheek”. At this his eyes went wide and a small smile appeared on his face, I then said, “She said it was for saving her life” he chuckled in response saying, “My sister has a crush on you, I’ve been suspecting it for a while but this just confirms it.” I looked at him confused and said, “Your sister likes me?” He nodded his head saying, “Yes idiot and I wish you the best of luck figuring it out” and with that he walked out of the tent presumably to go get the others.

      What happened next I didn’t expect, because apparently instead of getting the others Nokrao just went out and grabbed Velkav, quite literally because he was carrying her over his shoulder back into the tent, he threw her on the bed next to mine. He then gave me a quick wave and a few quiet words of encouragement to her and again left the tent. The awkward salience that filled the tent was one that could only be achieved by nine year olds. I looked at her and she looked at me. She started talking first, “I shouldn’t have kissed your cheek, it was… unprofessional and…” I interrupted her, “Nokrao says you have a crush on me”. Her eyes grew comically large and she quickly ducked her head to try and hide a bright pink blush that now inhabited her cheeks, “I well, I… umm” she stuttered, and then looked intently at the exit. As she got up to run away from this embarrassing situation, I said, “I like you too”. She turned and looked at me, she worriedly pulled her bottom lip in between her teeth, thought for a moment and then asked, “Since when?” I looked at my hands, thinking for few moments and then replied honestly, “I don’t know. But when Nokrao told me you liked me, I came to the realization that I liked you too. I guess it has been happening subtly now for a couple of weeks maybe ever since I met you. When did you start liking me?” She smiled at me and said, “I liked, your shaggy blonde hair and tanned skin, the first time I saw you. I liked you more when you started talking to me and Nokrao, unlike the others who are all too afraid or snobby to talk to us. I enjoyed our times in the library together immensely. But I didn’t actually realize how much I liked you till you told me, that you were coming here to kill a rancor; I got a pit in my stomach that I’ve only ever had when Nokrao’s been in danger. That’s when I knew I liked you as more than a friend.” I nodded to her, and asked, “So where do we go from here?” Releasing a long breath she looked down at her feet for a few seconds and then back up at me, “What do you want to do?” I smiled at her and patted the spot next to Rolf, saying “Let’s just talk for a bit longer, we can figure out feelings when were safe back at the Academy”. She smiled and moved over to the bed, sitting next to Rolf and petting him on the head, as we simply talked.

      It was maybe an hour or so later, when we both heard commotion outside. I patted Rolf on the head and instructed him to stay on the bed, I then left with Velkav. As we walked out of the tent the noise became clearer, it was blaster fire, from far away. I looked at her and she looked at me and we both realized what is was at the same time. Horvo was being attacked. As we looked up into the night sky, we could see the silhouette of a volucrie in front of the blue moon. (A volucrie is a large avian species, covered in black feathers, its wingspan was eight meters wide, the wings resembled that of dragon fly, the length of its body was five and half meters, its head was like a raven’s, it had four talons six inches long on each foot and one on each front wing like a bat, and its beak was razor sharp). This volucrie was curious and tried to get into The Ravager, that is why Horvo had begun firing the rotary cannons and that is how we were in our current predicament. The Volucrie was currently climbing high into the air dodging every strand of laser firing tracking it. Stultur approached Velkav and I from behind and said, “Don’t worry, that bird is as good as dead. Even if it got close to The Ravager it cannot get through its hull.” Velkav turned back to him and in a matter-of-factly tone said, “It can actually”. Stultur looked at her for a second, then back at the Volucrie and said over his coms, “Take manual control of one of our heavy turrets and begin firing on that creature immediately.” “NO” Velkav and I tried to say but it was too late, the shot was fired and now the volucrie’s attention was on the camp. It came at us lightning quick, swooping low and grabbing two different stromtroopers in its claws. It then pulled back up and started beating its wings furiously. The wind generated from its wings caused a few men to fall over and one corner of the officers’ tent came loose from the ground flapping violently. It was at this point I saw Akela’s lightsaber fly towards the beast, but with the strength of the wind the weapon was blown off course and ended up somewhere in the woods beyond our perimeter. The stromtroopers then began to open fire, the beast responded by brutally crushing the men it had in its claws and then throwing their limp bodies back at their comrades. I turned to Velkav then, noticing that Stultur had disappeared but knowing we had more important things to worry about, and said, “We need to get to the armory”. She nodded and we both took off at a sprint towards the armory tent. The volucrie continued to swoop and slash at our men as we made our way there. Once we were inside, I began furiously checking the crates, Velkav looked at me and asked, “What are you looking for?” I found the box I needed and pulled it from the crate, I opened it and pulled out the weapon, saying “This” Her eyes went wide looking at it and she said, “Akela is gonna be so jealous”.

      We exited the armory quickly and began looking for the optimal place to fire from. We decided one of the watchtowers would be best and we should fire when we were behind the creature. We sprinted to the closest one and went up its stairs taking two or three steps at a time. Once we were on top, I placed the weapon on my shoulder, and put my eye against the sight, waiting for it to tell me I had a lock on. At this same moment thirty meters away from our watchtower my squad and captain Fazisor and his security detail were trying to combat the bird as best they could firing their blasters at it and swinging their lightsabers when it made a low pass. There had been a lull in the fighting so captain Fazisor turned to my squad mates and asked, “Having any of you seen Vin or Velkav” my squad shook their head no. “Damn it, ok well lets handle the damn bird first, and get them later, now do any of you have any ideas?” Fazisor asked. Akela raised her left hand and used her right to cover a smile waiting for Fazisor to call on her. “Akela” he said. She replied, “I think I know how to handle the bird, we wait…” Fazisor looked completely unimpressed by her idea, and his expression made her start laughing uncontrollably, she then added quickly while in fits of laughter, “I also found Vin” she pointing to the tower I was standing on, aiming a prototype XK-27 multi-tubed rocket launcher at the bird. Seconds later I fired, and four missiles flew out of the launcher. They flew through the air arcing in four different directions and then converging on the single target, with one fantastic explosion. The volucrie fell to the ground dead, its back ripped open and singed by the blast to the point where we could easily see its spine.

      As we came down the watch tower, stromtroopers began cheering their thanks. At the bottom we were met by our squad and captain Fasizor. Akela was the first to speak, and it was predictable, “That was awesome!!!! When do I get to blow up a giant bird, huh?” “If you thought more with your head and less with your lightsaber you could have beaten us to the armory and gotten to use the rocket launcher” Velkav replied in a joking tone. Akela pouted and crossed her arms, saying “I will next time”. Fazisor then said, “Well kid that was nicely done. I would have probably come up with the same plan given a little more time” I nodded my head and then asked, “Has anyone seen Stultur?” They all shook their heads no and as if on cue, I saw his head pop out of one of the tents, surveying the surroundings. He came out a few seconds later, and then upon seeing us came over. When we asked him what he was doing in the tent he noncommittally mumbled something about someone needing his help and then quickly walked off. Horvo came over the radio not long after and asked angrily, “What the hell do you guys think you’re doing, I had it handled, it was as good as dead if it came at The Ravager, but no you guys just had to provoke it into attacking the camp” Velkav and I then tried to explain that it wasn’t our fault Stultur was an idiot, and after a while Horvo calmed down. Fazisor then turned to my squad and said, “Alright kids, you guys should try and get some shut eye. We still have a while to go before daybreak and who knows when the next attack might come” We were all about to agree with Akela said, “I need to go get my lightsaber, it flew into the woods” Fazisor tried to reason with her saying it would be better to look in the day, but she replied with, “You just said we don’t know when the next attack will come and I would rather have my lightsaber just in case.” Defeated by his own words and a determined look in her eye he began ordering his men to form up at the gate. My squad and I formed up with them, and Fazisor said, “Oh no, definitely not we will get Akela her lightsaber but you guys need to stay in camp”. He however lost that fight too when we argued that we would be able to find it faster and after we promised to run back inside if there was a serious threat.

      So with our twenty man protection detail and captain Fazisor, blending into the night in the black armor, standing next to us. Along with an additional thirty stromtroopers in their standard white armor, we were ready to search the jungle. Before moving out though captain Fasizor looked at two of his men and said, “You two go get some flamethrowers from the armory” they quickly moved off to follow his command. He then turned to us and said, “To be clear, you all will stick together when we are out there, you will stay in my line of sight, and you will not wander off, do you understand?” We all nodded are heads and he nodded back. I looking down and realizing I was the only one in my squad still wearing my sleeping clothes asked Fazisor if I could change, he told me I could but I had to be quick. So I sprinted back to my tent and quickly changed into my combat clothes, and grabbed and extra jacket with padding because it was cold. I then sprinted back to the gate at the same time the troopers, now equipped with flamethrowers, showed back up we all got ready to move out, bouncing on our feet to get the blood flowing. Fazisor yelled to everyone, “Alright I want every spot light pointed at the jungle, anyone remaining in camp your job is to cover our retreat if things go south, also turn off those damn automated guns, I don’t want to die from friendly fire.” I turned to Velkav and asked, “Why would the automated guns hit us, cannot they distinguish us from the enemy?” She replied, “They fire at thermal signatures, now they can distinguish between those signatures because First Order uniforms have a microchip that emits a signal letting them know we are friendlies, however that does not mean there aren’t accidents every once and a while”. Fazisor then told some of the men staying inside the fort to keep this one section of the fence open, in case we needed to make a hasty retreat.

      Then as the fence turned off he signaled for the white stormtroopers to fan out. They approached the forest with maybe five feet in between each other, keeping their eyes alert trying to perceive any danger. The dark troopers and captain Fasizor went next spreading out by a much smaller margin with less than a foot of space between each man, they then signaled for us to stay close to them. As we approached the jungle canopy the world seemed to grow quieter. The white stormtroopers broke the tree line and… nothing happened. We all walked deeper into the jungle and kept our eyes searching for Akela’s lightsaber, men spreading out further and further. The flashlights built into the stormtroopers’ F-11D blaster rifles became our primary source of light. Once we were about forty meters in Akela saw it and quickly moved over to it, picking it up and cradling it like a babe saying, “I’ll never lose you again, promise”. Just as Ish-del was opening his mouth, undoubtedly to make some jab at Akela’s mental health, a white stormtrooper was pulled up into the air by some rope trap connected to a tree. Seconds later three arrows sunk firmly into his chest. “PRIMORDIANS!” one trooper yelled. A hailstorm of arrows followed, some hitting the stormtroopers in front of us, some hitting the ground or trees around us. Our men quickly returned with blaster fire, desperately trying to hit something in the night. With every flash of red laser fire I hoped to see our enemy, but I didn’t. Fazisor called for a retreat, his dark troopers laid down cover fire for the white ones to pull out. Once the white stromtrooper passed Fazisor and his men he turned to his men holding the flamethrowers and said, “Light those fuckers up” and they did setting the forest ablaze. He then turned and seeing me and my squad holding our position he yelled, “Get back inside the fucking fence”. At this order we turned around and started sprinting to camp. Spears and arrows rained down on us, some hitting and killing the stormtroopers in front of us, some missed, and some grazed us but luckily none of them brought any of my squad mates down. When we broke the tree line, we could see our comrades in camp already training their guns on the forest waiting for the enemy to reveal itself. I chanced a look back then and saw Fazisor and his dark troops making a fighting retreat firing into the jungle wildly as they backpedalled towards camp. Some were wounded with shots to their shoulders, Fazisor himself was leaning on one of his men limping as quickly as he could after sustaining an arrow to the knee. I stopped running and so did the rest of my squad, we then waited for Fazisor so we could cover his retreat. As we were ten feet from the camp, primordians broke the tree line, racing towards us with unbelievable speed. Our men fired on them and a few went down others were lucky enough that their primitive shields deflected the lasers. When we were just inside the camp, Fazisor ordered the fence be turned back on, but in the few seconds that it took for the fence to warm up three primordian warriors were inside the camp. They slashed with their swords and spears killing several men before Nokrao cut them down. A few of them clearly not understanding what they were dealing with ran into the fence and fried themselves. The others began sprinting back towards the woods. Fazisor ordered the automated guns be turned back on and the jungle was soon bathed in blaster light, from the turrets and from the stormtroopers who continued to fire at the retreating forms of the primordians. Fazisor then pulled me over to the side and said, “It is my job to protect you not the other way around, you should have continued on to camp instead of covering my retreat… that being said, I would still like to thank you, for possibly saving my life and the lives of my men”. I smiled at him and looked back and my squad, saying, “It was a team effort”. I then walked over to where Velkav was standing and watched the firefight with her. Several minutes later when the automated guns had been turned off because we figured that the heat signature they were still firing at were just their last blaster marks and the green moon could be seen on the horizon, signaling that the night was in its final stage; I turned to Velkav and said, “Well you were right the primordians were a threat.” She smiled and looked at me and said in a mock serious tone, “I’m always right, you should get used to it”. Just as I was about to reply however, a single arrow flew through the air and hit me square in the chest. The force of the hit made me fall backwards and my head smacked heavily against the ground, and for the second time that long night I fell into a darkness.  

      I awoke several hours later, my eyelids felt heavy and I could feel my chest was incredibly sore. As I sat up and looked around I saw I was in my squad’s tent, I saw that each of them was in their beds sleeping except for Velkav who was sitting up in hers stroking Rolf’s head laying on her lap as she watched me. I got up and walked out of the tent signaling for her to follow me, we left the tent quietly Rolf trailed behind us. She tugged on my arm pulling me to a stop just outside the tent, she then hit me in the shoulder and said, “You promised to try not to die in the future” I gave a low chuckle and replied, “To be fair I didn’t do it on purpose”. She huffed and hit me again in the shoulder, I smiled at her and said, “Come on that was a little funny” her face remained grumpy so I decided to move on, “What happened?” “You got hit in the chest with an arrow, it should have killed you, but you were luckily wearing your jacket, which Snoke apparently took the liberty of lining the inside of it, with a strong liquid alloy, thus when the arrow hit, the alloy hardened and absorbed most of the force.” “Huh” I said, “how long was I out?” “Most of the night we got about seven hours left before daybreak” she replied tersely. “Velkav, you know I didn’t mean to scare you right?” She nodded her head. “So how long are you going to stay angry at me for?” I asked. She looked me in the eye, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, and replied, “Still deciding”. I thought for a moment and then with a mock serious expression and voice, I asked “Well, while I wait for your forgiveness, can you show me to where the premordian bodies are, I want to get my science on?” She laughed at that and nodded her head, leading me to the mess hall tent.

      When we entered I saw a table that had been separated from the rest, on it was a dead premordian and two more laying on the ground beside it. The premordian laying on the table was a prime example of its reptilian species, it was roughly the same size of a wookie, its tail was only about a meter long, and as a warrior its scales, which cover their entire body, were covered in war paint meant to blend it into the environment. I walked closer to the specimen with Velkav by my side, we looked at the body and saw it had already been dissected. We knew they would be here because per First Order regulation any hostile species killed in the field whose physiology was unknown were summarily dissected at earliest convenience. I carefully lifted the body of the table with Velkav’s help and we replaced it with another. That is when captain Fazisor spoke up, he had been sitting unbeknownst to us in a far dark corner of the tent, “Welcome, kid, I knew you would show up sooner or later” I looked at him confused and asked, “How could you know that?” He replied with a kind smile, “You are smart, tactical really, you cover all your bases. In every situation I’ve seen you in I see a prime candidate for a leadership role. So now that we got a couple of the enemy, I knew you would want to come and see what they had for yourself, look for their strengths as well as their weaknesses, its smart really, in fact it’s the same thing I did.” I looked at him and then back at the premordian back on the table and said, “We have already completed one field dissection, regulation dictates any further bodies we collect should be taken back for a more thorough analysis”. He smiled and said, “That’s right but you see, we have three bodies here, so as long as we bring one back we’ll be fine. Plus regulations are more like guidelines for men like us, you understand?” I nodded my head at him and said, “Thank you, sir.” He smiled and said, “No problem and by the way you might need this” he then pulled his combat knife from his boot and gave it to me. He then walked out of the tent saying we would talk later. Then I turned knife in hand back to Velkav and asked, “You ready?” She eagerly nodded her head, and together we pulled the premordian apart analyzing every organ and scale. 

      It was maybe two hours later that I saw, Velkav yawn. I looked down at our work and seeing that the husk was mostly empty by now with its organs splayed out across the table, I looked at her and said, “We should probably head back to our tent and get some shuteye, don’t want to be too tired when sun finally comes up”. She agreed and we began to bag all the organs in containers, once that was done we left the mess hall and went back to our tent. At the entrance of the tent I turned to her and said, “I’m going to go return Fazisor’s knife, but you go head and get to bed”. She looked like she was about to argue with but her argument was preemptively stopped by a large yawn, so she instead settled for just agreeing with me and getting some much needed sleep.

      As I walked through the camp on my way to the officers’ tent, I was repeatedly stopped by stormtroopers, who felt the need to thank me for my actions both against the nox-tur sukores and the volucrie; I graciously said each time that it was nothing and then continued on my way, occasionally looking up at the green moon now in its descent showing that this seemingly endless night was finally and truly coming to a close. I found Fazisor awake playing cards with his men, he looked up from his hand and smiled at me saying, “Pull up a chair if you want, I think you’ve earned it” I smiled at him and politely said, “I should probably try and get some sleep instead, big day tomorrow, I just came to return your knife” “Wise decision and thank you” he said taking his knife back and quickly slipping it into his boot. I looked around the room quickly and then looked back at Fazisor asking, “Where is Stultur?” “Oh he is sleeping in the armory, he wanted to feel safe. So apparently he decided the best way to do that was to sleep next to a whole bunch of explosives and other volatile material.” He said the last part in a sarcastic tone. I then said my goodbyes to them and headed back to my tent. I found most of my squad sleeping, Rolf apparently had decided to forgo sleeping in my bed and was laying soundly with Velkav. I climbed into my own bed quickly, and let the tiredness of my limbs and eyelids over take me and for the third time that night I fell into darkness.


	9. Daybreak

                I woke up to someone poking my cheek, I was still groggy and didn’t feel like opening my eyes, so I just rolled over ignoring them. Seconds later my cot was flipped over and I fell with a heavy thud. Looking up from the floor I saw Akela, trying and failing to look innocent. “What the hell Akela?” I asked. “Horvo said it was time to wake you up, and you weren’t cooperating.” I stood up on shaky legs and noticed Akela’s eyes dropping down as the blanket fell away from my arms, she then looked back up at me with a look of awe plastered onto her face. “Whose blood is that?” I looked down and realized after last night’s dissection I had forgotten to clean my hands instead leaving them covered in red primordian blood. I looked back at Akela’s curious eyes and decided the best way to get back at her was to let her imagination run wild with the possibilities. I proceeded to move around the tent, washing the blood off my hands, checking my bruised chest, and dressing; all the while I neither confirmed nor denied Akela’s guesses. By the time we reached the mess hall she had already come up with twelve impossible stories that she was convinced were true, and she had declared she was in fact super, super jealous of me. I sat down with my squad next to Velkav, I turned to her and asked, “I haven’t seen Rolf this morning. Do you know where he is?” Smiling back at me she pointedly looked under the table and sure enough, there was Rolf napping. “Where’s Horvo?” was my next question. “He is planning with Fazisor and Stultur, they’re trying to figure out the best way to search for your rancor”, one of the twins replied. After that breakfast went on as it normally did at the Academy, except now Velkav and I were accidently and very slowly scooting closer towards each other. This new action went unnoticed by everyone except Nokrao, who upon seeing it broke out into a wide grin and started wiggling his eyebrows, how none of our squad noticed his antics is beyond me.

              With breakfast concluded we proceeded to the officers’ tent. Upon entering we saw Horvo, Stultur and Fazisor all standing by a table looking over scans of the area. Upon seeing us Horvo gave us a brief nod and gestured for us to stand by the table. Fazisor then looked at me and said, “We have decided to head south, there is a river about two clicks away and all animals need water; so we’ll just follow that until we run into your rancor.” “So when do we head out, I really need to kill something?” Akela asked, hands shaking like she was about to explode from being cooped up in tent when there was an entire world outside she could be killing. Stultur responded, “I along with sixty-six of my men will be accompanying you within the hour.” “Only sixty-six?” Velkav asked with a barely-discernable look of concern she was trying to keep off her face. “Yes, only sixty-six. We lost seventy-one men last night and many more received injuries. So with those considerations and the fact that we need to secure this camp and the ships, I thought it best to leave the remaining hundred and twenty men here.” Fazisor broke in their saying, “Don’t worry, you guys still get me and my men for back up, we are a little banged up but we’ll be able to hold our own.” “Captain are you sure that is wise, considering your knee even if it won’t be a hindrance to your fighting will surely slow down the group’s pace? Perhaps I should go and you should remain here” Horvo said. “I’ll be fine, I can keep up, it’s barely a scratch” Fazisor replied. “Wait Horvo is staying here?” one of the twins asked confused. “Yes he is, we agreed we needed one of us to stay behind to maintain proper hierarchy on base while the others are gone. We also decided that since Horvo has the advantages of a lightsaber and the force, by making him stay we could spare more men for your hunting party” Stultur answered. And with that we were dismissed and told to ensure we had everything for our journey.

               One hour later. “All right people we as of now we have thirty hours of daylight left, I don’t know about you lads but I would rather not stay here another night. So do a final check on your supplies and fall in.” Fazisor announced to the mass of stormtroopers waiting patiently by the fence. After everyone had checked their supplies, which ranged from XK-27s to FWMB-10 repeating blasters to flamethrowers, I managed to get Rolf to lay down and nap, and Akela had talked Fazisor into letting her carry a backpack full of thermal detonators, we walked cautiously out of camp. We walked through the jungle, keeping our eyes peeled for any possible threats and maintaining a tight formation. After a while we started to notice the foliage was thinning and realized we must be nearing the river, at this time Ish-del came up beside me and said, “I know I haven’t been your biggest fan, but… I just wanted you to know that I respect you, now.” “Why the sudden change of heart?” I asked. “Because you’ve proven yourself. Before we came here I just thought you were some entitled little shit, who got preferential treatment for no reason.” “And now?” “Now… you’re a little shit who saved our camp twice, and who gets preferential treatment for a slightly understandable reason.” He replied with a big toothy grin, and with that we finally came from out of the jungle canopy and were greeted by a long sandy white beach. The twins quickly ran forward into the water and began splashing each other and Ish-del and Akela sprinted after them. As I stood there watching my squad mates playing in the clear blue water, I felt something that I had previously only ever associated with Rolf. I felt like they were family and I knew I would do anything to protect them. “What was that about?” I jumped not realizing Velkav had snuck up beside me. She laughed and said, “What is the big bad volucrie slayer, defeater of the nox-tur sukores and Primordians, afraid of little old me?” “He shouldn’t be, if he has any sense” Nokrao said.  “Oh really” Velkav replied with a smirk and then started chasing him, the chase last only a few minutes and ended with her force pushing him into the water.

              “Children that’s enough,” Stultur yelled “my men and I are here to escort Vin to his rancor we do not have time to indulge you!” And with that the joyous mood was sufficiently killed and we all fell back in line with some light grumbling. Stultur then began looking both up and down stream and looked like he was about to make an announcement when Fazisor asked, “So, Vin, which way are we headed?” Stultur looked at him exasperated and gestured for him to come over so they could talk in private. After a few minutes of arguing, in which Stultur made rather a lot of wild hand gestures and Fazisor on more than one occasion tightened his grip on his blaster, Fazisor came back to me and kneeled down. He took off his helmet and looking me in the eye he asked, “So which way?” I looked both ways and then back at him, indecision must have been clear on my face because he gave a small smile and whispered, “Use the force or pick randomly but please don’t let Stultur make this decision”. I smiled back and gave a brief nod, I then looked to my squad mates and the men around me, I walked a few steps away from them, faced the river, and sat down with my legs crisscrossed under me (it was the stance Horvo taught me for meditating). I took a few deep breaths and then focused my mind on the rancor. A few minutes went by and then I could feel the men around me, I could feel Akela’s energy, her desire to move, to kill. I could feel Stultur, pacing near the woods, infuriated probably due to Fazisor’s actions. I could feel everyone else, their anxiety as they waited for my decision. And then I could feel it, the rancor, I felt it’s footfalls vibrate in my bones, I could feel its hunger burning in my own heart, I felt its blood coursing through my veins and it made me feel strong. As I opened my eyes I looked downstream and pointed with my left hand, “We head that way” I commanded. And with that everyone fell in line and we began to proceed down the river bank, coming closer and closer to my prize.

            “Are you sure you picked the right direction?” Stultur asked, with a haughty tone. I couldn’t quite tell if he was annoyed because we hadn’t found anything in the past two hours of walking or if he was pleased by it. “Yes, he picked the right way” Velkav defended. It was at this moment that one of the twins pointed off into the distance and asked, “What’s that?” We all looked and saw a few stray plumes of grey smoke wafting up into the blue sky, it looked like we would come close to them if we continued down the riverbank. Fazisor ordered everyone to stop, and with a quick wave of his hand he signaled ten of his elite dark troopers to follow him. When I made a move to go with them, he said, “Wait here, we’re just gonna scout it out.” So I along with the rest of our contingent stood still and waited for their return.

            It felt like it took ages for Fazisor and his men to return, in reality it was about half an hour. “Well it looks like we found a primordian village. The good news is it looks like we could go around it without much trouble all we have to do is cross the river here, where the current is weak. The bad news is crossing the river will present logistical problems when we need to transport the rancor corpse back.  But, I think—“ “No, we are going to continue down river and take that village and its inhabitants out, before they get the opportunity to attack us” Stultur interjected. “With all due respect you didn’t see this village. It is situated on a large hill just off the river bank and there is no cover from the river to it. Taking the position would be difficult” Fazisor replied. “Then we head into the jungle and approach from cover” Stultur said, with a tone of finality. He then added, “That is what me and my men will be doing at least you and the kids can stay here for all I care. This shouldn’t take long they’re only animals after all” and with that he began ordering his men to check their weapons and head out. I gave a quick look to Fazisor and saw him release a small grumble before he ordered his own men to get ready. “Looks like we’re gonna get to have some fun after all” Akela said from beside me, she was shifting from side to side on her feet filled with excitement; she then quickly walked off to take point. “I don’t like this” Velkav said from my other side. I was about to reply when Nokrao said, “Oh come on little sister. We can take them, we might lose a few but this won’t be like last time we have the element of surprise not them. But, if you really are scared I’ll protect you”. Velkav narrowed her eyes at him and looked like she was about to kick his ass. But Fazisor asked her to walk with him, thus Nokrao was spared her wrath, for now at least. “Nokrao, why do you do that? You know she is gonna have to beat the crap out of you now, as a matter of pride.” I asked. “Yes, I imagine she will” he replied with a small smile. “Then why?” “Because I love her and she can always use the practice”. We talked on and off after that for a while until Stultur signaled for everyone to stop. He signaled for my squad and Fazisor to come up next to him at the front. “We are just north of the village, all we need to do is get up that hill” Stultur said. I looked at the hill and saw it was just like the other side there was no cover only on this side instead of the village there were trees at the top. “Alright let’s move” Stultur said. We all proceeded from our cover and began making our way up the hill.

                 About half way up the hill Stultur turned around and said, in his usual haughty tone, “See, everything is going to plan and soon those lizards won’t be anything more than ash”. However as soon as he finished speaking an arrow pierced his throat, he hit the ground gargling on his own blood. A large volley of arrows and spears began raining down from the tree line at the top of the hill, the stormtroopers crouched or went prone trying to make themselves smaller targets as they returned fire. “Hit them with incendiary rockets, now” Fazisor yelled. The men holding the XK-27s prepared to fire but to do so they had to stand up and as soon as they did make it to their feet they were falling with numerous arrows and spears now sticking from their chests. Velkav, who was crouching beside me, looked at me and said, “Stay here”. Before I could ask her what she meant, she began sprinting up the hill.

* * *

 

**_ Velkav POV:  _ **

                This was not good, we were in a tactical nightmare. We needed to burn those woods down but the flame troopers can’t get close enough and anyone trying to use a missile launcher is dead meat. As Vin looked at me, I got an idea. “Stay here” I told him. I then started to sprint up the hill, dodging and destroying the primordians’ arrows and spears as they flew down at me. I threw myself down next to Akela and looked at her. “Give me your pack” I said. She looked at me for a quick second, but did as a said. Picking up the pack, I looked back at the tree line at the top of the hill; I needed to be closer if this was going to work. So after a few quick fortifying breaths, I sprinted just a little farther up the hill and again fell to ground trying to avoid getting killed. I could hear Fazisor from behind me yelling, “Velkav! Fall back that’s an order” he means well but I’m the only one who can get us out of this and I will do anything to protect my squad. I ripped the backpack open as fast as I could. Then I focused, I reached out with the force picked up the thermal detonators, turned them on and then sent them as fast and far as I could up the hill and into the trees.

* * *

 

**_ Vin POV: _ **

                Just as I was getting ready to sprint up to Velkav’s position, the tree line erupted with a brilliant cacophony of explosions. Leaves, splinters, and bits of primordians flew through the air. “Quick incendiary rockets on those trees now, everyone else provide suppressing fire.” Fazisor yelled out. It only took maybe another thirty seconds and then the whole forest was in flames. “Push forward” Fazisor yelled. We did, the stormtroopers made a slow advance continuously firing their blasters at any primordians while my squad drew their lightsabers and cut down any of them stupid enough to charge. As the last primordian fell the only sound that could be heard was the cackling of the fire as it continued to burn.

                “Alright, sound off. Whose alive? Whose wounded?” Fazisor yelled. The men did a quick count: seven dead, including Stultur, and maybe a half dozen with serious wounds, everyone else was either unharmed or their injuries were small. “Akela, are you alright?!?” Nokrao asked with wide eyes. Her hair was matted down with blood, half her face was covered in long crimson streaks, and she was holding one hand behind her back, but she was smiling. “I’m GREAT” Akela replied. “Whose blood is that?” “One of the primordians’” “How did that happen, lightsabers cauterize the wound?” She laughed and said, “I picked up one of their swords, see” she moved her arm from behind her back and sure enough there was a sword. It was crude fashioned from rock and bits of bone, it was only two feet in length. “You mean to tell me, you, in the middle of a fight, put away your lightsaber so that you could use a sword instead?” Velkav asked with a tone of disbelief. “Yes” Akela replied like it was obvious and made total sense. “I just wanted to see what it would be like to use one of these things” Akela said, indicating the sword, quickly spinning it in her hand a few times. “I’m keeping it” she said. Velkav looked like she was about to tell her she couldn’t, when Fazisor announced, “Everyone, get ready to move out. Get the weapons and supplies from the dead, we need to finish this before the primordians regroup”. As all the stormtroopers quickly did as ordered, Velkav and I approached Fazisor. “Why attack them? We should just go around and look for the rancor” Velkav said with a perplexed look. “That plan may have worked, before but not any longer. If we leave this village intact then once they’re ready they will send warriors after us, we’ve killed too many of them. And they have killed too many of us, it is better to get rid of them completely, now when we have the advantage than to risk another attack”. Velkav looked pensively at her hands for several short minutes and then nodded her head in understanding. Fazisor looked from her to me and then to the rest of the men, seeing that everyone was ready to move out now, he said, “Alright keep the formation tight, most of the foliage got burned away but keep your eyes peeled, we are going to hit them hard and fast and then we are going to continue on mission understand”. The men sounded off a chorus of agreement and then took up formation.

                With every footfall a small cloud of ash puffed into the air and settled along our pants and shoes, as we advanced towards the village. Akela even stooped down and collected some at one point, so she could rub it on her hands and make two horizontal lines just beneath her eyes. We came to halt when we were within two hundred meters of the village, it was a straight shot and there was no cover for the primordians to be hiding behind. “Alright, we need to get in close and use the flamethrowers. We’ll leave the wounded and twenty men here, with the heavy guns if things get hectic they can provide covering fire, everyone else will advance.” “Why not just use the missiles?” Velkav asked. “DIBS” Akela said, as she proceed to frantically signal for the stormtrooper holding the XK-27 to give it to her. “We could do that, but we might need to use the launchers for something else later and the ammunition is very limited.” Fazisor replied. Velkav thought it over for a few minutes and eventually agreed with Fazisor, saying, “So what are we waiting for?” “That’s the spirit!!!” Akela said, trying to give her a high five which Velkav in turn ignored.

                We advanced slowly, blasters primed, and lightsabers drawn. There were a few stray huts farther out from the village center that we passed, we needed to start the fire where the huts were more condensed so the fire would spread everywhere. The world was dead silent as we stood a few feet away from the huts, “I don’t like this” Fazisor said. The flamethrowers cackled to life with a deafening roar and the huts, made of wood and leaves, were quickly set aflame. The first few men fell without anyone noticing the arrows flying into their backs with nothing more than a whisper, we only realized we were under attack when a flaming arrow pierced one of the flamethrower’s fuel tank and it exploded. A few of our men died in the explosion, others fell to ground burning and screaming. Even Oocozreso was knocked onto her side from the blast. “RETURN FIRE” Fazisor commanded. The stromtroopers turned and did as commanded but when their backs turned to the village, more primordians charged from the flames and began to cut into our ranks. We were surrounded. It was chaos, the primordians were hacking men apart with swords and axes, and limbs were flying with ever other swing. I was thirty feet from Fazisor when I saw his blaster knocked out of his hands, so he pulled the knife out from his boot and rammed it down to hilt into the top of a primordian’s skull. However before he could dislodge the blade from the skull another primordian attacked, he took a few steps back and removed his helmet holding it in his right hand he waited for the primordian to attack. When it lunged at him he dodged to left, and hit it on the back of the head with his helmet; it hit the ground and he climbed on top of it battering its brains out with the helmet in a few massive blows. Fazisor looked up at me and yelled, “FALL BACK”.

“Follow me” Akela yelled, she then sprinted away from the village spinning and turning and lunging with her lightsaber at any primordian in her way, she looked like nothing more than a tornado of lightsaber strikes as she opened up a hole for us to retreat through. We were just past the outlying huts when the primordians made their final charge from the village. Ish-del turned around, took a few steps towards them, and raised his right hand; he sent a dozen of them flying back with a large force push sending them crashing down on the roofs of burning huts, however as his attention was on the village a primordian charged from out of one of the nearby huts. Before any of us could react, the primordian was bringing his blade down against Ish-del’s shoulder. It was with a sickening slice and a bloody spray that Ish-del’s arm fell to the ground, he let out a blood curdling scream as he collapsed. Before the primordian could deal the fatal blow Akela threw her lightsaber into its chest. I and the rest of my squad quickly ran back to Ish-del to help him. I knelt down beside him, tore off part of my shirt and pressed it to the wound, but it was bleeding so much, the shirt was quickly drenched and blood was seeping through my fingers. I didn’t know what to do. “Hold him” Velkav said. Nokrao and I, quickly pressed down on his legs and chest, knowing better then to ask questions right now. “This is gonna hurt” she said, as she brought her lightsaber to his wound, effectively cauterizing the arteries. His screams intensified for a few second but then he passed out with a weak whimper. Nokrao and I picked him up and we fell back to Fazisor and the rest of the stormtroopers as they provided covering fire. The fight only lasted for a few minutes after that, it ended with the village burned to the ground, over a hundred dead primordians spread out across the land, thirty stormtoopers lying dead, and many more sustaining injuries.

                I was sitting with my squad, Velkav was treating Ish-del’s wound he was still passed out. Oarukdakuf looked over Oocozreso, apparently she had sustained burns along her left leg and along her back from the flamethrower explosion. Fazisor approached us, “We need to return to camp, we’ve lost too many men, we need to regroup and go over our options” he said. I looked to and from my squad, trying to gauge what they wanted to do. Even Akela looked like she thought we should go back. “When do we head out?” I asked. Fazisor was about to reply when Ish-del, who I thought was still passed out, gave a few short coughs and said, “Oh hell no. We aren’t leaving till you get that rancor. We’ve come too far, given too much for anything less”. I looked into his eyes and saw the steely resolution in them, I then looked at his arm; even though Velkav had saved his life we still needed to treat it with actual medicine if he was going to have any chance. “We need to get you back to camp” I tried to reason. He shook his head no. I spent the next few minutes looking at him and everyone else, and I realized he was right but I was right too. I turned to Fazisor and said, “Get them ready to move out” “Them?” he asked. “Yes, I’ll be continuing on mission” “No you won’t, not alone” “Yes alone, they need to get back to camp and you need to get them there” “Vin we can come back later—“ “NO, _You are going to take them back to camp, now_ ” “I’m going to take them back to camp” he said with a dead monotone. “Vin don’t you dare” Velkav began. “Sorry” I replied and then turned to Fazisor and said, “ _You will take them all back to camp_ ”, he nodded his head. He then ordered his men to get ready to move out, when Velkav resisted he knocked her out with a sedative.  Nokrao turned to me and said with a small smile, “If the rancor doesn’t kill you then she will”. “It’s for the best” I replied. He nodded and said, “Stay safe”. He pulled me into a tight bear hug for a few seconds and then quickly walked off with the rest of the men back towards camp, leaving me completely alone for the first time in months. 


	10. The Rancor

     I sat down on the ashy ground, among the burnt out trees, and unzipped my combat jacket. I took in a deep breath through my nose and closed my eyes for a few brief seconds, trying to take a few seconds for myself before I continued on my journey. However as the sounds of the jungle came back to life, I realized it was time to go. So I opened my eyes, stood up, secured my blaster inside my jacket, and began my walk along the river again.

                I lost track of time as I walked. Finally I came to a fork in the river, the river was shallow here and the current was slow; I could cross easily and follow the river on the farther side, or I could explore the land in the middle, or I could continue along my current path. I was trying to figure out which path to take when I remembered what Fazisor had told me earlier that day, ‘use the force or pick randomly’ he had said. So I sat down on the river bank, legs crossed beneath me, hand on my baster in case any creature happened upon me, and I tried to relax as best I could. I tried to focus on the rancor, tried to feel its power again, but I couldn’t. I looked to the sky in exasperation, and let loose a frustrated scream. I fisted the sand below me, felt it grit between my fingers, then I stood up ready to just continue along this riverbank and hope it was the right decision. That’s when I heard it, the roar in response to mine, it reverberated and echoed through the trees to me; it seemed to come from every direction. It lasted for only a few seconds, the jungle’s silence due to it lasted only a few seconds more and then I was plunged back into the buzz of beetles, the hum of birds wings flapping through the air, and all the other noises, except for the one I wanted. I tried to figure out which way the roar came from, I tried to figure out where to go, but it was useless. There was only one way I would know the right path to take, and with that in mind I sat down again and let my mind focus on the rancor. It wasn’t like before, I couldn’t feel it specifically but instead I felt a tug as if I was on the end of a rope. It pulled me across the river, it led me down river for several more minutes and then it pulled me into the jungle. I followed it as if I was possessed over a few hills and only came to a stop when I heard another roar this one was closer, I could feel it in my chest. I pulled the blaster from my jacket. I then zipped the jacket up again, knowing that while it may be reinforced with armor it still wouldn’t provide any real protection, but the action made me feel safer so it was worth it. I checked my blaster made sure the charge was good, and then counted my extra ammunition. I wasn’t sure if it would be enough but I couldn’t go back now. So as quietly as I proceeded to where I heard the roar come from. I came to the top of a hill, the foliage was thinning out, and as I looked down at the valley below my jaw dropped.

                It was a boneyard, with a half dozen decaying rancor on the sides, and innumerable full and partial rancor skeletons filling up the space. This is the kingdom of the Mirures Rancor, and it was made of death and bone. As I was marveling at it, I began to wonder where the Mirures was. My question was soon answered when a rancor was sent crashing through the trees. The brown rancor got up on shaky legs, blood dripping from multiple gashes along its torso and arms, it turned back towards the jungle and arms raised ready to strike, gave a challenging roar. The jungle went quite for several seconds, I held my breath without even realizing it, and then it came. I could see the tree tops move from where I was, they swayed like they would in a storm. As the unseen beast approached I could hear the snapping of the trees, I watched as their trunks fell. And then it was barreling out of the jungle jaws open, bearing its twelve large fangs (I also knew that it has a second set of sixty-six smaller teeth on the inside of its mouth, all razor sharp), and giving a tremendous roar which shook the very ground I stood on. It was at least twice the size as the other rancor, and its hide was pure white. The brown rancor brought its claws down onto the Mirures’ head, but it was to no avail. The Mirures has an exoskeleton starting at the top of his upper lip running across the top of his head, and ending at the shoulders, where there were three large bone spikes protruding. The Mirures after shrugging of the attack, retaliated with a large swipe of its right claw against the other’s jaw. The hit caused the brown rancor’s jaw to be ripped completely off, it landed a dozen feet away. Then as if that wasn’t a mortal blow, the Mirures brought its left claw into the brown’s abdomen, I could almost see its talons pierce through to the other side. As it removed its claw the brown rancor fell to the ground collapsing into a lifeless wreck, like countless others had done before. The albino flipped the brown on its back and began to tear into its stomach with a ravenous, unquenchable hunger. I had expected to find a monster based on my reading, but I could never have imagined this.

                 I tightened my grip on my blaster to keep my hand from shaking. I knew what I had to do, I knew what I came here to do. It was with this in mind that I snuck down into the valley, trying to find the best place to shoot from. I hid amongst the skeletons, pressed my back to the putrefying bodies of the dead rancor, as I tried to remain hidden as long as possible. I was maybe fifty yards away from it, when I ran out of things to hide behind. “This will have to do” I said to myself, as I pressed my body against the ground, steadying my blaster with both hands. I tried to remember what Phasma had told me about shooting and about where to shoot a rancor. I honed my gun in on its eye, I took in a large breath and with a slow exhale I pulled the trigger.

* * *

 

**_ Nokrao’s POV:  _ **

                “Sister, don’t worry everything will be fine. Vin will be fine” I tried to console, but she was having none of it “I swear, I’m going to kill him” Velkav seethed. “Fazisor has his mind trick worn off yet?” She asked, Fazisor turned to her and said, “I’m taking everyone back to camp”. “Guess not” she said with sarcastic laugh. “Don’t worry we’ll find him, he can take care of himself in the meantime” I told her. “How do you know that?” she asked me, with a curious gaze. “He has cheated death at least three times since we have been on this planet, that’s how I know he’ll be fine” “No not that. How do you know we can find him?” I rubbed the back of my neck nervously, “Well… you see… I… um” “Nokrao how do you know?!?” she asked with the tone that meant she’d kick my butt if I didn’t tell her. “I may have put a tracker on him” I said in one quick spurt. She looked at me with wide eyes, and then quickly gave me a hug, saying, “You’re a genius.” She pulled back with a smile on her face and asked, “So, what’s the plan he continues on mission, finds the rancor and then waits for us to come back him up?” I ran my hand against the back of my neck again saying, “Yeah… um… That would have been a good idea” She looked at me with a raised eyebrow and asked, “Well what did you guys come up with?” I chuckled nervously, “Well, um… we… uh, how to put this?” “Just spit it out!!” she said angrily, her smile gone. “I kinda didn’t tell him I was putting a tracker on him” she clenched her jaw in response, asking, “WHY THE HELL, NOT?” “Well I didn’t want him to say no, so I figured I wouldn’t risk it and I would just stick it on him without him noticing” I said, detecting the nervous tremor in my own voice. She looked at me with a hard glare, started to mutter something under her breath and then looked back at me with the same look she had when she broke my arm a few years ago, after I had knocked out a few of her baby teeth by mistake. However her death glare was broken when the trees began to thin out and would could see our camp.

Once we had reached our perimeter, Fazisor quickly ordered Ish-del and Oocozreso to be taken to the senior medical officer, Akela and Oarukdakuf were their human crutches, respectively, as they continued into camp. Fazisor then turned to us angrily and said, “None of you thought of trying to use a force mind trick, to make me go back for Vin?” “We aren’t as proficient as Vin is, we haven’t even gotten it to work inside of training sessions. We couldn’t have even though we wanted too” Velkav replied with an equally frustrated tone. Fazisor stared her down for several seconds, and then said, “Fair enough, you all stay here while we go get him.” “No” she replied, defiance brimming in her voice. “You’ll just be a liability” “Says the man with a limp. If we let you go after him, it will be nightfall by the time you get back” “Then it will be nightfall, but one thing is for certain and that is you are not leaving this camp”. Velkav stared at him clenching and unclenching her fist several times, before she evenly replied, “We have a way to track him do you?” Fazisor looked at her for several seconds, trying to judge the validity of her statement, after several seconds he said, “If you wanna see Vin alive, you’ll tell me how to find him”. I watched her, as she took in a deep breath, I knew her answer before it left her lips. “I’ll tell you, if you take me” she said with a cool demeanor, but I knew she was raging on the inside to go after him already. Just as Fazisor was about to reply, Horvo came over and said, “Fazisor you will stay at camp and oversee its dismemberment, we leave before the sun sets. I will go after Vin myself” “Yes, sir” Fazisor replied. Horvo stopped just in front of us, his arms folded. I looked to Velkav and she looked at me, for brief second and then we both looked down at our feet, knowing very well that he was going to tell us to wait at camp where it was safe. Horvo looked from me to her and then gave a short huff, saying, “Well what are we waiting for? How are we going to find Vin?” Velkav and I tried to quickly school the shock out of our features as we looked at Horvo. “Well Nokrao put a tracker on him” Velkav said in small tentative voice. Horvo in return gave a booming laugh and with a quick wave of his hand beckoned us to follow him, saying, “Well then let’s get moving”.

* * *

 

**_ Vin’s POV: _ **

                Of course the albino would raise its head at the last possible moment causing the bolt to miss, because that would have been too easy, I thought to myself. I unloaded as many blaster bolts as I could into it as it began to make its lumbering advance towards me, but its hide was too thick and I was succeeding in only pissing it off. With a swipe of a claw it sent a shower of bones towards me I ducked behind one of the rancor corpses for cover. When I peeked over the body I saw that the Mirures was still coming and now just barely twenty feet away. I quickly stood up, took aim at its eyes and let off a litany of shots. The beast responded by covering its eyes with one arm and then striking out with the other. It hit me in the chest with the back side of its arms, I felt a few of my ribs crack from the pressure, and I was sent flying through the air. With labored breath I shakily stood up, it was then I realized I had lost my blaster mid-flight and had no idea where it could be. I looked at the rancor as it continued to make a slow advance, I began to shift my weight in preparation for running away and buying myself more time, but as I put more weight on my left leg I felt an excruciating pain. Something was wrong, I don’t know what but I knew running was no longer an option. Still I needed more time to come up with a plan, so I began to hobble backwards as fast as I could. I tripped over a skeleton, falling flat on my back. When I got up the beast was practically on top of me, it made a sweep with its right claw which I narrowly avoided by ducking. I not knowing what else to do, sprinted forward going behind the beast, my leg screamed in pain but I ignored it as best I could. When I couldn’t run any longer because the pain was simply too much, I turned around. I had put a good bit of distance between us maybe fifty feet but the rancor was turning around now and I didn’t have enough energy to do that again. Enraged by having to work this hard for such a small meal, the rancor let loose a massive roar, and then began to advance again keeping its shoulders low and head down, as if planning to grab me if I tried running by it again. I looked from it to the skeletons around me, and I got an idea. I used my pain as I reached out with the force to lift up part of rancor ribcage, I sent it flying towards the Mirures. The ribcage thwacked against its bone skull, and fell to the ground doing nothing to impede the Mirures’ progress. I tried again and again showering the Mirures with as many things as I could, but it was to no avail, every time the object would hit its exoskeleton instead of anything actually vulnerable. It was maybe ten feet from me and I didn’t have much strength left, but I had to try. I looked to my right and saw a large arm bone, it was jagged as if the Mirures’ had broken it off its former owner. I knew I only had one shot at this and I had to make it count. So I waited, with baited breath. And when the Mirures finally reached me and it pulled back both arms, readying to finish me off, I sent the arm hurtling towards it.

* * *

 

**_ Horvo’s POV:  _ **

                “How far are we from the signal?” I asked the crew. “Looks like about eight minutes” the pilot replied. I looked out from the bridge of The Ravager, and ordered, “Start looking for a good place to land”. “Yes sir” they all replied. I looked at Velkav and Nokrao standing closer to the glass. Velkav was tapping her right hand incessantly on her upper thigh, beating her fingers against her pants in a steady rhythm. It is the only nervous tick I haven’t trained out of her, and I make a mental note to myself to do so as soon as possible. I approach my children and try to console them saying, “There is nothing to fear your friend is going to be fine”. “See sister, even father has faith in Vin” Nokrao says rubbing her right shoulder with his hand, in clear sign of support. Velkav gave a curt nod, and continued to stare out the window for the next few minutes.

                “Sir we are practically on top of the signal” the pilot informed me. We were hovering over a large boneyard, and from the ship I could see the albino rancor Vin was so adamant about killing. It looked as if it was standing still. “Should we land sir” the pilot asked. “Yes, put the ship down immediately” Velkav said, in one of the most serious voices I ever heard come out of her. Something was going on here, Vin was more important to her than I would have thought. The pilot looked to me for permission and I gave him a short nod. If the rancor turned and came at the ship we had enough firepower to blow it to pieces, so there was no real danger. The ship landed on the ground with a loud crunch, it was probably bone being crushed to dust underneath the sheer weight of out ship. I stood in the cargo bay with both my children at my side waiting for the doors to open. When they did Velkav quickly sprinted through them, Nokrao following quickly behind her, before I could warn either of them against the potential dangers.    

* * *

**_ Velkav’s POV:  _ **

                There it is, Vin’s damn cannibalistic albino rancor. It has a bone protruding from its back, it looks like it was rammed through. I know I should slow down, I know I should check my surroundings, I know this could be dangerous but I need to find Vin. So I sprint to the Mirures, not paying attention to the small cracks and snaps the bones make beneath my feet.

                I can feel the bright sun beating down on the back of my neck, as I come around the body. Walking around it the first thing I see are Vin’s boots sitting in the shadow of the Mirures. The second thing I see are the serrated teeth flying towards me. With a flick of the wrist I force push them to the side where they lodge in the Mirures’ corpse with dull thuds. I then look to Vin, “Really?!?” I say in exasperation. “I thought you were a primordian” he replied. But at this moment I was just so elated that he was alive and before he had the chance to say something else stupid, I knelt down beside him, took his face in my hands and kissed him. When I pulled back my eyes had adjusted to the shade and I saw his face was pale and his hands covered in blood. “What the hell happened to your hands?” I asked, kneeling down next to him and holding them in my own. He flinched away as I ran my hands over his trying to figure out how deep the cuts were. “Well, I needed a weapon and I lost my blaster during the fight, so I decided that pulling some teeth out of this rancor here, would be the best solution. I didn’t mean to cut myself really, but it was hard to get a good grip.” I looked at him completely unimpressed, and while applying a bit of pressure to his palms asked, in the most even tone I could manage, “And why didn’t you go looking for your blaster”. “I jacked up my leg, I can’t put much pressure on it anymore” he replied, masking his pain as best he could. I turned to look at his leg and sure enough, the ankle was swollen three times its regular size. I looked at him, laying here practically defenseless, bleeding out into the dirt, and I asked him, my voice cracking just a bit, “And why didn’t you wait for backup? Why did you decide to take it on by yourself?”

* * *

 

**_ Vin POV:  _ **

                I looked at Velkav, she looked to be on the verge of tears, and I tried to think of an honest answer for her. “It was just something I had to do on my own” I said. However if I had known she was going to slap me across the face for that answer I may have spent some more time thinking. She then pulled me into a tight hug and whispered, “Don’t ever do something like that again. Even if you think you have to face it alone, you take me with you. Nothing will get in our way as long as were together, you understand?”. I gave a weak nod of my head, starting to feel the full effects of the blood loss now.

                Horvo gave a gruff clearing of his throat to let us know he was there. I looked to him, with Velkav’s arms still wrapped around my neck. He stared back at me with an unreadable expression; Nokrao, who was standing next to him, however had a very clear expression of utter amusement plastered across his face. “It is time to go” Horvo ordered. Velkav helped me to my feet and we proceeded to the ship. Nokrao, Horvo, and some of the crew came out to drag the Mirures into the cargo hold, pulling the bone from its chest and leaving it on the ground. A medic came to see to my wounds and I closed my eyes for a few minutes while he checked me out. Meanwhile Velkav and Nokrao said, they were going to radio camp and make sure everyone was ready to leave when we got there. The medic said I would be fine and then left, leaving me alone in the cargo hold… or so I thought.

                “We need to talk” Horvo’s stern voice, startled me. I opened my eyes and looked to him, his arms crossed in front of him and glare across his face. “Sir, I know I should’ve probably waited for backup but I thought it was the best way to protect my squad” I replied, hoping he wouldn’t hear the small treble of fear in my voice. “It is not your job to worry about the safety of your squad, others are meant to handle that. That being said I thank you for not needlessly risking their lives, as you did your own” he said, glare still on his face. I waited a few seconds, thinking that the lecture was over and he would walk away now, but he didn’t, he just kept standing there. “Is there anything else, sir?” I asked. “Yes, I think we should talk about your relationship to my daughter, don’t you?” he said, in a voice that clearly meant this wasn’t going to be an optional or pleasant conversation.


	11. The Lightsaber

                 “Alright good, now place the crystal into the module, and then put it into your pommel ” Horvo said in a calm voice, we had been at it for days but now finally it looks like I was about to finish my lightsaber. I picked up the black kyber crystal and stored it in the module. Then I gently slid the module and all the internal wiring that went with it, into the hollowed out rancor bone. I made sure it was lined up properly and then I screwed in the small metal plate and locked everything into place. “Alright Vin, moment of truth, we get to see if you made it right. Turn it on” Horvo said, with a small smile. I looked from him then back to the ivory lightsaber; the bone felt cold and smooth in my sweaty hands, I knew I had done everything right, I knew it would work, but still I couldn’t stop the nervous energy pulsing through my body. “Go on, little one” Snoke’s voice sounded from the corner of the room, I had no idea he was even in the room but his words made my heart beat slower, made my hand stop shaking, and gave me the confidence to push the button. As the button depressed a brilliant black blade shot from the handle.

                “Exquisite! Little one, a fine weapon indeed” Snoke said, with a smile and then proceeded to applaud. Horvo gave a curt nod and congratulations, then left to attend to other matters. I spun it in my right hand a few times going backwards and forwards. “Careful little one, you should take things slow till you get the hang of it” Snoke instructed. I nodded to him and began making slower movements, practicing my slashes and lunges, for a few minutes. After a while Snoke spoke up again, “May I see it?” I obediently handed it over and he inspected it for a few seconds. He smiled at me and handed it back, but then his smile faded and he said in a very serious tone, “We need to talk about what transpired on Feroxus.” I looked at him, knowing what he wanted to talk about but I decided to play dumb anyway, “What would that be?” I asked in my most naïve voice. “You forced Fazisor to go off mission, you could have gotten yourself killed” he said, in the most condescending tone he has ever used on me. “But I didn’t” I replied, hotly. He watched my for a few seconds, then with a small chuckle he said, “No you didn’t, I suppose I could trust you more in the future, eh?” I was taken aback by this, I studied his face trying to figure out if this was a ploy and I said cautiously, “Yes… you could.” He nodded his head in agreement, and then asked, “But you will be careful, for me won’t you …please?” I felt my eyes go wide at this, here was the supreme leader of the First Order asking, not ordering, me to be careful. I immediately felt a little guilty for what I’d done and said, “Of course, I’ll be careful.” He gave me a big smile and patted me on the shoulder saying, “And Fazisor along with his men will be undergoing force resistance training soon” I looked at him momentarily confused asking, “But I just said, I would be more careful; don’t you trust me?” “I do, little one. You misunderstand, I want you to learn how to control them even when they have training to resist you” he said. I looked at him and nodded my head in understanding. And with that he said his goodbyes and then left me to my work.     

                I sat down at the workshop table and began to carve a few designs into the handle. One was the insignia for Special Division, a capital S and D with a knife running threw them. Another was a depiction of the Mirures roaring, in all its rage and ferocious glory. The last thing I carved was a simple diamond. I then set the lightsaber back down and began working the other projects I had decided to do, spending the next several hours tinkering in the workshop till Hux came in. “Vin I heard you had finished your lightsaber may I see it. “Of course it is over there” I replied inclining my head towards the other side of the table. He walked over to it, picked it up and looked it over, and then finally turned it on. While still staring at the black blade, he asked, “Why the black blade? From what I heard it took several attempts to make it this color, why was it so important to you?” I stopped tinkering with the belt I was working on for a second and looked at him, thinking for a moment I replied, “Simple really; I read about it in a book, and from that point on I knew it was what I wanted.” He smiled at me and said, “I suppose that is simple. What are you working on there?” “A belt, I’m making it so that I can carry the Mirures’ teeth in it” “Why would you want to do that?” he asked. “Because they are extremely effective even against some of the strongest armors, if I make this belt and always have them on me, I can use my force powers and send them at whatever enemy is stupid enough to get in my way” I replied with a small smile. “Very true, and what about that other thing you have there?” he said, pointing to the necklace on the table. “That’s for Velkav”  I replied, trying to hide a small blush that had worked its way to my cheeks. His eyes widened for a moment and his smile grew, “I see” he said. He then turned to leave but before he walked out the door, he said, “Ish-del’s in the infirmary, the operation was a success. Maybe you should go see him” he then walked out leaving me alone.

                I looked down at my work, and decided that was enough for today, quickly picking the belt up and putting it in my storage cubby at the side of the room. I then picked up my lightsaber slid it into my pants’ pocket, then I grabbed the necklace off the table and put it in my other pocket, before I walked out of the workshop. Rolf had been lying next to the door, and when I came out he quickly got up and began walking with me to the infirmary; but when I saw how tired he looked I instructed a passing stormtrooper to take him to my room.   

                As I walked up to Ish-del’s room, I saw Horvo coming out of it; holding his arm like he had pulled something. He gave me a brief nod as he passed by. When I walked into the room, everyone was laughing, Akela had laughed so hard that she was literally rolling around on the floor holding her stomach desperately trying to catch her breath. “What so funny?” I asked, with a large smile automatically coming to my face. Akela finally managing to gain some composure, sat up pointed to Ish-del and in between fits of giggles, said, “He fulfilled the bet!!” I kept looking back and forth between my squad mates till Nokrao elaborated, “Remember that bet I had with him, about you dying… well he lost. So he called Horvo an idiot and then took him on in an arm wrestling match.” “Only the old man didn’t know what he was getting himself into” Ish-del interrupted, flexing his new robotic right arm. It was jet back, and its parts were segmented into multiple distinctive parts (I mused to myself that this was probably to allow for easier repairs and maintenance). I gave a broad toothy grin to them, imagining Horvo face when he lost. “So where is your lightsaber?” Ish-del asked. Everyone turned their eyes to me, waiting to see it. So I took it from my pocket and turned it on, spinning it in my hand a few times. They all let out a few oohs and ahhs, and then Ish-del got up from his bed saying, “Alright let’s see what this arm can do.” “I don’t think that’s a good idea” Velkav said. “It’ll be just for a minute” Akela, pleaded, wanting to see the robotic arm in action. Velkav let out a reluctant sigh but relented, Akela upon getting her way started to jump up and down clapping her hands. “Alright let’s get moving, sooner we get to the training room the sooner we can get back” Velkav said. We all looked back and forth from one another, until finally Oarukdakuf asked, “Why do we need to go there?” “Because we cannot very well smash up the infirmary, now can we?” Velkav replied, in a tone that let us know that was certainly not an option.

                I stuck my head out the door and checked the hall; seeing that it was all clear, I signaled for my squad to follow me. We were almost out of the infirmary wing, having passed through a half dozen halls completely undetected when we were stopped by a medical officer. “What is this, back to bed; you shouldn’t be exerting yourself” he said, looking at Ish-del. He looked like he was about to call over some guards when Akela elbowed me in the side, saying “Vin now would be a good time to make with the mind control”. I looked from her to the rest of my squad, their reassuring nods convinced me to do it. So I turned to the medical officer and said, “ _Everything is going to be fine. Ish-del doesn’t need to go back to his room. In fact, you’ll forget you ever saw any of us in this hallway, after ten seconds_ ”. He looked at me and said in a dead monotone, “Everything will be fine, Ish-del doesn’t need to go back to bed, and I’ll forget I ever saw you in ten seconds”. I signaled for my squad to quickly follow me, so we could get out of his sightlines before the ten seconds were up. After that we made it to the training room without any further incidents.              

                “Alright Ish-del, shows us what that arm can do” Akela said, sitting down on some of the exercise equipment and swinging her legs freely beneath her. Ish-del gave a cocky grin and then stood in one of the punching bags. He hit it a few times, with about as much force as he would have with his normal arm. “Come on, stop holding back” Akela practically begged. He stopped and turned to her, saying “I was just getting a feel for it alright.” He then turned back around, bounced on his feet a little and hit the bag again; only this time he put some actual strength behind it, making the chain holding it break and causing the bag to fly ten feet through the air, till it hit the wall. We all let out small gasps and loud cheers for that. Ish-del took a bow, he then proceed to mutilate other training equipment with our encouragement, snapping metal bars like they were twigs and throwing weights around like they were feathers. After a little while, Akela asked him to punch the wall. Velkav advised against it, saying the wall had been carved from bedrock and that it would be a shame for him to break his shiny new arm. Ish-del however didn’t listen to her and walked over to the wall, squared his feet and then punched it. I don’t know what we were expecting but surely none of us would have thought his fist would go straight through. “That was AWESOME!!” Akela screamed jumping up and down, while trying grab hold of his arm. “I want one, I want my very own arm of destruction!!” she continued to rave. At this moment I leaned over to the Velkav and quietly asked, “What is up with her naming skills, it’s all death this and destruction that?” Velkav simply shrugged her shoulders and replied, “It’s Akela”. She then looked at Akela and said, in a mock serious voice, “If you want an arm like that you’re gonna have to cut one of yours off, you know that right?” Akela then began to intently look between her own arm and her lightsaber. “NO!!!” we all said in collective unison. She then stomped her left foot saying, “You guys are no fun at all”. We all laughed at that and were getting ready to take Ish-del back to his room when we heard Horvo’s booming voice say, “Well I’m glad you’re all having a good time. Would someone like to explain to me what’s going on?” I scanned the room quickly wondering where he was, since I never heard the door open, and then I saw his face. It was at the hole Ish-del had made, apparently we all forgot that there was a hallway on the other side, when we were encouraging him to punch it. A few seconds later Horvo came into the room with an extremely disappointed look plastered on his face, “I expected better from all of you. How could you think this was a good idea? Ish-del should be in bed recovering, not smashing the shit out of our training room.” His lecture however was cut short, when Snoke walked in and said, “Horvo, come now children will be children. I’m sure they were just excited in seeing what that arm could do”. We all frantically nodded our heads, showing our earnest agreement at that. “And now that they have they will be returning to their respective rooms” he continued. Again we nodded our heads. Horvo gave a short huff and said, “Fine but you all will be cleaning this mess up tomorrow”. He then turned walked out of the room. Snoke continued standing there for a few seconds before he said, “Vin, come to my office tomorrow after your lessons. I think it is about time I teach you how to become more attuned to the force so that you can sense my presence, like I promised.” “Of course” I replied. He then turned to walk out of the room. I called out to him, “Thank you sir, for the leniency”. He didn’t turn around and with a careless wave of his hand he responded, “Think nothing of it”. And with that he was gone leaving only my squad in the room once again.

                Akela and Nokrao volunteered to take Ish-del back to his room, and the twins had gone off saying that they wanted to get the mess hall before it closed for the night. That meant it was only me and Velkav walking back to dormitory. “So, it feels like we haven’t talked in a while, what with you being sedated and submerged in a full bacta tank on our way home, and then Horvo immediately taking you to the workshop to work on your lightsaber, which took forever. Anyway I guess what I’m trying to say is: How have you been?” Velkav said to me, barely taking a breath. I smiled to her and said in slow drawl, “I’ve been good, really. Oh by the way, Horvo knows that we are kinda a thing and he gave me a whole speech about how I shouldn’t ever hurt you if I value my life”. Her eyes went wide and she pulled me to a stop, yanking on my arm till I was facing her completely, asking, “WHAT?!?!?” I gave her a small smile and said, “Relax, we worked it out and I don’t plan on hurting you so I think we’re good”. I nervously fiddled with the necklace in my pocket for a few seconds before I pulled it out and handed it to her saying, “I made this for you”. She took it, like it was precious and flipped it over in her hands a few times, it was one of the rancor’s teeth, sheathed in a silver case, which matched the silver chain that went through the root of the tooth. She looked at me and asked, “Is this from the rancor?” “Yeah” I replied nervously rubbing the back of my neck, “do you like it?” She gave me a smile and nodded, and then asked, “What is the diamond for?” indicating the engraved diamond shape I put on the front of the sheath. “It’s not a diamond” I replied. “Oh really?” she asked, her brows quirking. “It’s two Vs, one for Velkav, one for Vin. I put the same thing on my lightsaber.” She smiled at me and said, “Thank you, I love it”. I smiled back at her and replied, “Good, I hope it can get you out of trouble someday, the tooth is still razor sharp underneath, you just have to undo some little hooks to get the silver off” I then showed her how to do it. Then I put the sheath back on and gave it to her. She looked at me and asked, “Can you help me put it on?” I nodded my head. She turned around and held her hair out of the way for me so I could clasp the necklace around her neck. She then turned around and looking at me said, “I’ll wear it always”. She gave me quick kiss on the cheek and then we turned to walk down the hall again. “So what other things are you making?” she asked casually, entwining our fingers as we walked down the hall. “Well I have these, I don’t know what I’m going to use them for yet but it seemed a shame to let them go to waste” I replied, as I pulled out a small brown pack and opened it showing her the half dozen kyber crystals I had created before I finally got one to come out black. “I’m also making a belt to hold the other rancor teeth and I think I’ll make a coat from its hide. Oh and maybe some bone masks for all us, just for when we go on future missions.” “Sounds like a plan” she replied lazily. I smiled more to myself than anyone else, thinking about how greatly a fortune could change in just a few months. It wasn’t too long ago that I had nothing but now I had the whole universe at my feet, all I had to do was reach out and take it, and take it I shall.


	12. Starkiller base

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will be the first major time jump

**[Five years later]**

_** Snoke POV: ** _

                “As you can see sir the construction is already well underway, and by our rough estimates we will have everything operational in eight years” said my chief engineer. “Let me see that report” I ordered, extending my hand out and waiting for him to give me the electronic tablet. He handed it over to me and I gave it a brief once over making my own calculations. I handed it back saying, “We will divert an additional twenty-five percent of all First Order resources to this project. It should make this weapon operational within six years.” He stood their awkwardly for a few seconds, clearly trying to follow my own calculations in his head but he was unable to. “You’re dismissed” I said. He looked back at me gave a salute and then quickly walked off. “Sometimes I wonder why you bother having engineers, you could do it all yourself in half the time” Raz, head of my security team and head of project Clairvoyancy, said with a small chuckle from behind me. I turned to him and said, “It is because I have better things to do with my time then design new starships, battle stations, and blasters”. Raz smiled and asked, “Like taking care of Vin?” I gave Raz a brief smile and a nod; I would not allow any more elaboration on the topic. I had come too far, Vin trusts that I have his best interest at heart, and if he knew I was manipulating him from the start I don’t know what he would do. To be fair though he made it too easy, clinging to that massif of his, I immediately knew what he wanted was support and love maybe even a father, and that is exactly what I gave him. I smiled to myself musing of how easily people are controlled and manipulated, just like numbers on a spreadsheet. I then turned to Raz and asked, “Has Clairvoyancy come up with anything?” “Yes, sir. No threats but we’ve sensed a child, we believe he is on Tatooine.” “Good, good. Vin’s team shall retrieve the child” “As you wish sir, he is outside training at the moment, do you wish for me to inform him?” “No, no I’ll do it. It’s been a month since I’ve last seen him.” Raz bowed his head and then formed up with my other five sith body guards, all of whom remained by my side at all times.

                As we stepped outside into the cold air, I turned to Raz and asked, “Where is he?” Raz pointed to some woods ahead and we all began our trudge through the snow. The freezing cold weather is the price I pay for keeping this weapon a secret, I suppose.  We walked through the woods for several minutes with no one saying anything; we then came upon a small clearing. In its center stood Vin and his squad. His squad was forming a circle around him and he stood in the center, they all had their lightsabers out. Vin upon seeing me gave a small wave and then commenced the fight. Over the last five years he has been training on perfecting all seven forms of traditional lightsaber fighting, so it came as no surprise when he disarmed most of his team mates within four minutes of the fight beginning. Soon the only ones left standing were him, Velkav, and Ish-del. However this weather wasn’t exactly perfect for Ish-del’s robotic arm and it soon became unresponsive and he had to concede. I watched as Vin and Velkav attacked one another for a few more minutes, neither ever gaining the upper hand, nevertheless I could see Velkav was the better swordsman, her technique was textbook, her execution flawless; the only reason Vin was still on his feet was because of their relationship. Fazisor called for an end to the fight and Vin quickly came over to me, and asked, “What’d you think?” He had grown quite a bit over the last few years, now probably five seven and still growing, he cut and parted his hair like Hux did and his azure blue eyes had a hardness to them they didn’t before, a product of my training no doubt. He was ruthless, he was loyal, he was powerful and most importantly he was obedient. “Your performance was excellent little one” I replied. He gave me a small smile and then straightened up a bit more asking, “Is there a mission, sir?” “Yes, I need you to retrieve a candidate for the Academy.” He bowed his head saying “It is as good as done”. I smiled at how enthusiastic he always was to please and to serve. “Vin come on man it’s cold”, Akela yelled from a few dozen yards away. He looked back to me ready to make the necessary apologies, when I told him it was alright and I would speak to him again soon. So Vin and his squad quickly scuttled off to prepare for their mission.

                Fazisor came up to my left side and waited for me to address him first. “Progress report?” I asked. “Vin continues to display leadership skills and his tactical awareness during war games is starting to exceed that of some of our field commanders and instructors. However, I’m worried his force mind tricks are beginning to reach the full extent of his power. He can control twenty men, trained against it, and give them simple commands; anything more than that and it either starts failing or it takes a toll on his body” “Hmm… I was hoping for more” I said running my right hand against my chin, “but I suppose everyone has their limits. However I want you to keep pushing him, maybe he can do more.” “Yes, supreme leader” he said. I turned to Raz, who had been compiling all the mission details and parameters on a tablet. He handed it to me and I handed it Fazisor saying, “These are your orders.” Fazior gave me a brief salute and then turned to leave a few of his elite dark troopers falling in line behind him.

_** Vin POV: ** _

**[several hours later, aboard the  _Ravager_ ]**

                 “Alright kids, we need to run over mission parameters” Fazior said, while standing in the center of the  _Ravager’s_ recreation room. “But they are literally the same EVERY TIME” Akela said dramatically. “Nevertheless Akela we should go through it, just put on a brave face and soldier through” Velkav replied with the same dramatic tone. Akela gave a long sigh, visibly deflating on her spot on the couch and tossing an arm over her eyes, before replying, “Fiiinnnneeeee”. Rolf then jumped up onto the couch next to her and laid his head in her lap trying to console her. Fazior tried to hide his chuckle and then proceeded saying, “Rules of engagement are simple, if you engage kill it and leave no witnesses. Reports on indigenous lifeforms and other planetary details are in this dossier,” as he said this he threw an electronic tablet down on Ish-del’s lap, “so read it before we land. We should be on planet within the next fourteen hours, so I suggest you all get some sleep before then. As for jobs, Vin is squad leader, and Velkav will be the seeker. Any questions?” The room remained silent for two minutes, so Fazior clapped his hands together and said, “Alright good, I’ll be on the bridge and my men have set up in the cargo hold as usual. Have fun”. Fazior then walked into the elevator and we were left to ourselves.

                 Not even a full minute later Akela sat up, looked at me, and asked, “So can we get the stuff out now?” I nodded and Akela gave a celebratory whoop, jumped up over the back of the couch and ran into her room. Rolf upon feeling her get up jumped off the couch and went into one corner of the room so he could take a nap. Nokrao chuckling walked over the wall and removed one of the square panels. He then reached his arm in and brought out a brown bag. Meanwhile Ish-del got on his hands and knees and felt around the underside of the couch, until he pulled out a small box. The twins walked over to the cabinet in the corner of the room and pulled out a few glasses and a bowl. I meanwhile took a seat across Velkav as we prepared for a game of dejarik. Once we were all settled down, the twins sitting on a couch, Ish-del opting for a chair, Nokrao sitting on a couch by himself, and me and Velkav sitting off to the side; Akela came back in wearing her favorite necklace and holding ‘choppy’ (primordian sword she got five years ago) and said, “Well this won’t work at all!” She then began ordering the others to move the furniture so it was in a circle around the table, then with a satisfied smile she plopped down next to Nokrao  and said, “Alright let’s get a move on.” Oarukdakuf stood up and placed the bowl in the center of the table, while Ish-del opened the small box and pulled out a set of Sabacc playing cards, he broke it into four roughly even parts and handed one part to everyone, except me and Velkav since we didn’t play this game all too often (mainly because we won too much, for the others liking). Nokrao then opened the brown bag and pulled out a few bottles of Naboian wine, pouring a decent amount into the cups that the twins retrieved and then handing a cup to everyone playing. The game was simple throw the card at the bowl if it goes in, everyone else drinks; if it doesn’t then the thrower drinks. What made the game interesting was when we all decided to start cheating and using the force to manipulate the card, causing it to have some pretty crazy flight paths at times. “Alright everyone no cheating” Nokrao said seriously, but the smile on his face revealed he knew that would never happen. Akela took one of her mementoes (loot she takes after each mission) hanging from her necklace and pressed a kiss to it before throwing her card. It went right into the hat and everyone but her drank. Ish-del then gave her a curious look and asked, “Akela what is that?” indicating the memento she kissed just seconds before. Akela looked down and played with it for a second before saying, “I think it is a molar from that senator we handled a few weeks back”. Velkav gave a brief sigh and asked, “You just kissed a dead man’s molar for luck? How did you even pull it out without anyone noticing… no wait I don’t want to know” Akela smiled happily to herself running her fingers over the rest of her mementoes, which thankfully consisted mostly of shiny objects she liked.  I chuckled to myself for a minute and then remembered a question I’d been wanting to ask. “So what’d you all think of Starkiller base?” I asked. The twins and Nokrao shrugged in response. Velkav said, “Ask me again after we see it fire”. Ish-del nodded his head in agreement with her but then snorted saying, “What kind of name is Starkiller base anyway? Sounds like Akela named it”. Akela looked affronted and said, “I wouldn’t name it something so simple. I would have called it…“she paused for dramatic effect “… MEGA-DEATH-BOOM-BOOM-GUN!!”  We all laughed at her suggestion for a solid three minutes until she finally whined, “Can’t we get back to the game already?!?!?” They all did, but continued to laugh as they played, making their throws a bit more inaccurate than usual. Velkav and I watched a few rounds before I turned to her and asked, “Do you want to go first?” She smiled, nodded and began moving her pieced on the dejarik board.

**[a few hours later]**

                Velkav and I were done playing dejarik, she won one round and I won the rest. The others had finished their drinking game and were now using the cards for their actual purpose playing a game of Sabacc, this was unprecedented. Nokrao looked up at us and asked, “Wanna play, I’ll deal you in?” I looked to Velkav and she looked at me saying, “I’m gonna see if I can’t get a bit more attuned to the potential’s power. Don’t want to get there and have no idea who the candidate is.” I nodded to her and then sat down at the table, where the others were playing. She meanwhile retired to the corner of the room, sat down crossing her legs under herself and closed her eyes. Akela looked at me and with a slight slur said, “Yousa can’t be playing if you a-rn’t drinkin’”. I looked at her and said, “Maybe you’ve had a little too much, if you think I’m ever gonna take orders from you” “She has a point, squad leader” Nokrao said with a smile. I sighed a bit dramatically saying “Hold on a sec” and then stood up retreating to my room, I went to the air vent, unscrewed it, and pulled out the bottle I kept there for just this occasion. I walked back in, sat down and took a large swig from the bottle, then I looked at Akela and asked, “Happy?” She nodded and we all settled in for our game of Sabbac.

_** Velkav POV: ** _

                I don’t know how long I meditated for before I found and got tuned into the potential’s power; but when I opened my eyes and got up I heard Akela yelling, “HA HA HA, VIN YOU SHOULD PLAY THIS MORE OFTEN”. I walked over looking at them; everyone had what looked to be a sizable portion of tokens except for Vin. Vin’s pile of nuts and bolts and anything else we were pretending had value(we didn’t use credits when betting, because we don’t have any credits to bet with; why would we the first order provides everything we need),  was much smaller than everyone else’s. I walked over to Nokrao placing my hand on his shoulder and asked, “What’s going on?” “Vin here is losing terribly, for the first time ever. Maybe we should play games by the normal rules all the time” Nokrao responded with a huge smile and booming laugh. “Maybeee We-e  SHOULD” Vin said, slurring and going from a whisper to a yell. I knew that look though and I knew something was up. Nokrao dealt the cards again and I got a look at his hand, it was a Pure Sabacc. Nokrao however kept his features cool betting the minimum and waiting to see what the others did. Eventually it got to the point where Vin couldn’t match the bet anymore so he said, “Alright…” he burped but then continued, “I’ll bet my, … my pos-ition as squad leader next mission”. Everyone went wide-eyed and immediately went all in, I tugged on Nokrao’s arm and whispered in his ear, “Don’t do it, trust me”. He shook me off saying, “Have you seen this hand, I can’t lose.” I face palmed lightly and then waited for the inevitable. Everyone flipped over their cards Nokrao second to last, and it looked like he was going to win… but then Vin flipped over his cards. It was an Idiot’s Array. “NOOO!!” Nokrao, Akela, Ish-del, and the twins all cried out at once. Vin smiled and said, without the slightest hint that he’d been drinking “Well I think that’s the game”. Nokrao looked a Vin, pleading, “HOW?” I walked around the table and sat on Vin’s lap, I took his bottle off the table and drank from it. “WHAT THE?” the rest of the squad gasped out, except for Vin, seeing as I never drink. I pulled the bottle away from my lips with a slight smirk saying, “Grape juice, completely non-alcoholic”. Vin smiled, as Akela asked, “How did you know?” “I can read him easily enough and I know how he’ll always cheat if he can” I replied. “And this is why we never play games with you guys” Akela huffed. “Because we’re better than you?” Vin asked innocently but with a wicked smile on his face. Akela immediately got up and walked into her room presumably to go to bed. The twins, Ish-del and Nokrao all did the same over the course of the next few minutes after putting away our ‘contraband’ (since none of this stuff was allowed under First Order regulation). I sat there with Vin for a few minutes running my fingers along the scars he had on the palm of his hands, from pulling out the Mirures teeth. He then asked me, “So did you manage to get a trace of the candidate?” I nodded and then got up from his lap, tugging him up with me, saying “It’s time for bed come on”. “I like the sound of that” he replied with a sly grin. I laughed, smacking his shoulder and saying, “The mission comes first, remember”. He smiled saying, “of course, love”. We then walked into our room, switched into our sleepwear, cuddled up together and fell asleep. But before I dozed off, I heard scratching at the door. I got up, to check it and found Rolf on the other side, “Sorry buddy, we forgot you were out here” I said patting his head a few times. Luckily Rolf wasn’t one to hold a grudge; he licked my hand a few times. I walked back over and got under the covers, Rolf in turn jumped up in the bed and planted himself firmly in between me and Vin, and that is how we remained for the rest of the night.    

**_ Snoke POV:  _ **

                I was sitting in my office running through the latest reports, detailing our newest training methods for stormtroopers and their efficacy.  Raz was mediating in the corner with a few others from project Clairvoyancy, one of my favorite creations. Clairvoyancy entailed having a select group of sith meditate and see as far as they could into the future, it allowed me an edge letting me take every advantage and disable any threat. Raz and the others startled from the meditation and he looked immediately up at me. “What is it?” I asked. “There has been a shift Supreme Leader, someone young someone powerful has turned to the dark side.” He replied. “Tell me more” I commanded, rising to my feet and walking from behind my desk towards him. He immediately bowed his head and tried to see more. After a few minutes, Hux barged into my office. It was very unlike him and I couldn’t help but be irritated that he would interrupt me at this time, so I asked him, “What is it you think you’re doing? I have not summoned you; I have not given you permission to enter”. He dropped to his knees quickly and looked down on the floor, saying, “Forgive me Supreme Leader, but there is a transmission I think you need to hear”

_** Vin POV: ** _

[**After sleeping**]

                When I woke up Velkav was nowhere to be seen, I sat up groggily rubbing the sleepiness out of my eyes with my palms. Rolf decided to lend assistance in this endeavor and began to lick my face repeatedly. I in my attempt to get away, rolled off the bed and fell flat on the floor, laying there I thought: well at least I’m not tired anymore. I got up and did my normal morning routine. Once dressed, I walked out into the recreation room and was greeted with a familiar sight, my squad running through their own little rituals before going on mission. Ish-del was running diagnostics on his arm, removing bits and pieces and checking the internals. The twins were playing some sort of coordination game slapping each other’s hands in perfect sync. Velkav was drilling mission details into Nokrao’s head, making sure he knew everything backwards and forwards. And then there was Akela, who was eating a Roonan lemon, judging by the amount of peels in front of her, I would guess she was on her seventh. Her face was contorted hilariously and yet when she was done with that one she moved on the next. We had all tried to convince her to stop before but she had said it was just her thing and we needed to accept it, so we did but none us have ever understood why she does it and I doubt we ever will. “Come on guys let’s see where we are” I said to them. They all looked up at me and nodded, Ish-del put his arm back together and Akela threw all her peels in the trash, to be jettisoned at a later time.

               We all filed into the elevators and went up to the command bridge. Fazisor greeted us saying, “Ah, perfect timing we should be coming out of hyperspace momentarily, and hitting the planets atmo is maybe ten minutes.” We all nodded and waited for Tatooine to come into view. Coming out of hyperspace, we were greeted by a New Republic heavy cruiser. The ship had a simple design, roughly the size of a Star destroyer, it was rectangular for the most part, it had five circluar engines on the back one larger than the rest was set in the middle and the four others were spaced equally around it. Three sizable hangars located on the ships underbelly, port side, and starboard side. It also carried enough weapons to pacify an entire quadrant of pirate space. These ships were the New Republics symbol of security... I couldn't wait to watch it burn, but now wasn't the time. Akela however thought it was the perfect time and began ordering, "Full power to forward shields, prime all weapons we are gonna hit them with everything we got!!" "No we aren't actually", Fazior said shaking his head. 

              "Alright people, New Republic is on sight use extra caution" Fazior said over the ships intercoms, like we all didn't already know the drill. "Velkav, where are we headed?" He asked. Velkav closed her eyes for a second and then said, "We're on the right side of the planet at least, break for low atmo and I should be able to get more specific." Fazior nodded and began issuing orders to the pilot, meanwhile me and my squad headed back to our rooms and got into our mission gear. We all quickly changed and met back up in the recreation room, Akela was running late, but I looked at the rest of my squad. Vellav and Nokrao wore black stormtrooper armor except for the helmets. The twins and Ish-Del wore regular training combat jackets and pants, they had padding but not much else. I wore black combat pants, a black t-shirt and my rancor jacket (I made it from the the Mirures' hide, the sleeves covered my whole arm and it fell to a few inches past my knees. I also worked in bits of the Mirures' bones into the chest area to offer extra protection). I thought we all looked fairly ready to go on mission and then Akela walked out. She was wearing black shorts, a white tank top, and black combat boots. I facepalmed and then asked, "Really you want to go on mission dressed like that? Do you really think that is a good idea?" "Yes" she replied simply. Nokrao and Ish-Del whispered something to one another and then started laughing hysterically. Velkav then tried to reason with Akela asking, "Why do you think that is a good idea? What if you get shot?" "Do you know how hot it is out there?!? You're gonna be burning up in that armor and plus have you ever seen stormtrooper armor actually work?" Akela said defensively. "The armor does work, they have been improving it and it does maintain some climate control on the inside" Velkav responded. "Guys I don't want to rush you but we’re all ready down here" Fazior said over the ships intercom. "Alright let's go" Akela said and sprinted into the elevator before we could try and talk some sense into her. 

              Walking into the cargo hold, Fazior gave Akela a funny look when he turned his head to me, clearly getting ready to ask what the hell she was thinking; I shook my head no, signaling that this fight just wasn’t worth it. Fazior simply shrugged his shoulders and then turned to Velkav asking, “Velkav, where do we go from here?” Velkav closed her eyes for a few seconds and then pointed to the ships portside, Fazior quickly issued orders to the pilot through the intercom and I could feel the ship turning. We flew that way for a few minutes until Velkav put her hand up and said, “We’re close”. Fazior nodded and the crew turned all the scanners on and began looking for the nearest settlement. “Captain, we might have a small problem, this settlement isn’t exactly small” one of the ship’s crew announced over the intercom. “Show me” Fazior said, placing a small projector on the ground. We waited a few second for the hologram to appear and when it did we saw a town and it looked like there were close to three hundred structures in it. “Shit” Fazior breathed out. “That’s not all sir,” the pilot said, “New Republic forces are on site, there is a transport craft landed on the east side of the village.” “Alright, break for high orbit and get ready to send and encrypted communication to the nearest relay station” Fazior said. “Delay that” I commanded. “Vin, look the protocol is very clear for this situation the town is already a bit on the large side and with New Republic on site we need to inform the First order and wait for further instructions.” Fazior tried to reason. “You remember what you said to me? ‘Regulations are more like guidelines for men like us’, come on we can take them” “I’m starting to regret ever saying that to you.” He replied with a sigh. “Look it’s just too much of a risk, with the New Republic being here. Snoke doesn’t want to take any unnecessary risks, at least not until Starkiller base is constructed“ “Fazior listen, you know I can make you do this, but I’d rather you just went along with it. We can handle it, we’ll kill them all, we’ll get the potential, and everything will be fine” I said to him. Fazior clenched and unclenched his jaw for a few seconds, and then said, “Alright, what’s the plan?” I smiled at him patting his shoulder saying, “We will land on the western side of the town. S.O.-0566 and S.O.-3321 will accompany me and my squad into town. You and the rest of your men will split up into two teams and secure a perimeter on the northern and southern sides. The ship’s crew will remain here and use The Ravager’s weaponry to take down any incoming or outgoing vehicles, as well as anyone who comes out of the town on this side. They will also jam any signals leaving the town.” “And if a signal gets through and the New Republic cruiser in orbit sends reinforcements, what then?” he asked. “Then we kill them too. And if they send more we kill them too and so on and so on till they don’t have anyone left” I replied, coolly. Akela smiled and said, “Let’s hope they send reinforcements then”. Fazior looked at me and said, “Let’s hope your plan works, because if it doesn’t we’ll either die out there or we’ll be killed by Snoke when he finds out” “It’ll work” I reassured. Fazior gave one last sigh before ordering the pilot to put the ship down on the western outskirts of the town.

             As we landed I felt the ship settle uneasily on the shifting sands, but as soon as that stopped I turned to my squad and said, “Okay rancor squad, masks on and put the smoke filter in”. The masks were bone masks (fashioned from the Mirures); they weren’t particularly ornate just the simple oval covering from the bottom of the chin to just above the forehead, the special division symbol, a capital S and D with a knife running through them was carved into the right side of the mask. Their most useful feature was that they accommodated a variety of interchangeable filters and rebreathers, which allowed us an advantage on any mission we went on. My squad all quickly did what they were told securing their masks on, as did I. Akela put her hair up into a high ponytail, to keep it out of her face, while Velkav pulled hers into a simple braid. The cargo doors opened and we walked out, being greeted by sand dunes and two blistering suns beating down on us. “Alright no coms till you hear from me if they got signal detectors I don’t want to tip them off”, I said to everyone. Fazior divided up his men and then split off to cover their sectors. I turned to the stormtroopers that would remain with us and said, “S.O.-0566 and S.O.-3321, you two keep a few paces behind me until I tell you otherwise, understand?” They nodded their heads and with that I turned around and started marching towards town.

            Almost as soon as my head popped over the last sand dune, before hitting town, we were receiving enemy fire. We all quickly got down behind the dune and I silently issued orders to my team. We all crawled up the dune slowly and peeked over the edge as discreetly as we could. The town wasn’t far at all, maybe thirty paces, and standing in front of the town’s buildings was a small force of maybe fifteen men. They were ragtag at best, definitely not New Republic in fact they were probably from the village. I signaled for the Stormtroopers and Rolf to wait and pulled out my trusty 434 heavy blaster pistol, I put it and my hands over my head, making it look like I was surrendering.  My team, even though they didn’t know the plan, put their hands over their head too. I walked over the dune and kept a slow calm pace towards the village. I was almost to the first structure when someone said, “Stop!!” so I did. “Who are you?” they asked. “Just a trader passing through, one of my transport rigs broke down and I’m just trying to get a little help” I replied, it wasn’t my best lie but these people are living on a desert planet with two suns, so I doubted they were the smartest bunch. They all began approaching our group, five more stepping out of the structures. **“Who are they? They certainly don’t look like Tusken Raiders”** I heard one of them thinking. They were carrying outdated and rusting blasters, and they all had an uneasy expression on their face. The leader of this little militia asked, “What’s with the masks?” “That’s enough out of you” I replied and then I said, “ _No one move”_ before any of them could react. Now frozen, I walked a bit closer to the leader and said, “ _Tell me about_ _the Tusken Raiders and tell me about the New Republic forces that are in this town”_. “Tusken Raiders have been harassing us nonstop lately, most people moved away. We formed this militia to fight them off” he said indicating himself and the others. “We were relieved when the New Republic showed up, they said they would help us but they said they need to talk to the Diya family first.” “Interesting, _tell me how many New Republic soldiers are here and how many townspeople still reside here?_ ” “I don’t have an exact count but it was a lot of New Republic guys. As for the townspeople, less than a hundred” “ _Tell me was there anything out of the ordinary about them?”_ “They were traveling with two jedi” he replied. “Jedi” Velkav breathed out. I turned to her and she discreetly signaled she wanted to talk. I walked with her away from the village, out of earshot of our team and she turned to me and said, “Vin, this is serious we need to abort now” “Why?” I asked. “Vin you know I’d follow you anywhere, but if jedi are here then we have a serious problem. We can’t risk them seeing us and getting away, we need to go now” “Then we won’t let them get away, the plan is not changing and we’re getting that candidate.” “This isn’t like going off mission and picking up Roonan lemons or Naboian wine, this shit is gonna get complicated fast and you may not be able wipe Fazior’s memory like usual” I smiled and said, “As long as we get the kid, Snoke will be happy. What does it matter if there are a few jedi here as long as we get the job done. Don’t worry, I’m the golden boy, remember, I can’t do wrong” She remained unconvinced and looked like she might continue arguing with me but I looked at her and smiled saying, “Don’t you remember, ‘Nothing will get in our way as long as were together’”. She tried to fight a smile from breaking out on her face but I saw how the corners of her mouth turned up ever so slightly and I knew I convinced her. I turned to the sand dunes and yelled, “Form up, get ready to move out”. She fell in line with the rest of my squad; the stormtroopers and Rolf came over the dune and joined us as well. I turned to the villagers and said, “ _Kill everyone in this town, who is not currently standing here. You will feel no fear, no pain, no remorse_ ”. They all then turned and walked off into town, presumably to kill the inhabitants. “That was some oddly specific verbiage” Akela said, amused. “Have to be specific, otherwise they might have just shot each other instead of the other townsfolk” I replied. At that moment I got a little light head and I felt a bit of blood start trickling down from my nose. Velkav and Nokrao were by my side in an instant steadying me. “Are you alright?” Velkav asked, a look of concern etched into her beautiful face. “It’s nothing. The more complicated a command and the less likely someone wants to do it, the harder it gets. I’ll be fine in a minute” I replied. A minute later I straightened myself up and said, “Alright, Akela, Nokrao, Oarukdakuf, Oocozreso, and Ish-del go into town, kill anyone you find.” Akela smiled and replied, “Gladly”. “Are you sure?” Nokrao asked. I nodded and they walked off. I turned to Velkav and said, “Alright let’s go get the candidate. Lead the way”

**_ Lieutenant Daniels POV:  _ **

                “Captain, how long do we have to stay here?” I asked. “As long as it takes” he replied. I looked over to the jedi sitting down in the Diya family’s living room, they were saying, “Luke understands how important family is and he won’t take your child away from you, but he needs to be trained to follow the light and we need to take him with us to do that”. I turned to my captain and said, “I’m gonna go check in with my men”. The captain looked at me for a second, and then nodded. I walked out of the house and the two guards at the door immediately stood to attention. Rookies, I thought to myself as I ordered, “At ease, remain at your posts.” I then walked over to the nearest, New Republic issued sand speeder and climbed in. After a few minutes of driving around the towns’ weird mixture of bends and corners, going past numerous abandoned buildings, I ran into my team and got out of my vehicle. “Hey lieutenant, how much longer are we gonna be here, because I’m starting to get sand in places I didn’t even know about” my corporal said. My sergeant quickly smacked him in the back of the head saying, “Stop joking around”. “As soon as the jedi are done with their business we can leave, high command is gonna send a separate team to deal with the Tusken Raiders” I informed them.  Just then we heard blaster fire and people screaming for help, we were preparing to move out when a woman ran into our street yelling, “Help!! Please help me!! They’re killing everyone”. She kept running towards us but soon fell to the ground as another blaster shot rang out. The shot was angled from around the corner so we couldn’t see who shot it. We all took cover and pointed our blasters down the street, it was a far distance and I felt confident we would be better shots than any Tusken Raider. We waited a few seconds and then some of the towns’ miltia came into the street. Something was wrong, one had a wound to the shoulder and another had taken a shot to the leg. They kept walking towards us. One of my men came out from behind cover and yelled, “What’s going on? Are you al—aah”. They shot him. “Put your weapons down now!!” I ordered. That didn’t work however because as they started to see us they began firing their weapons. My men returned fire from cover, but they just kept advancing, even when they got shot they just kept walking towards us firing their blasters. My team’s medic now approached our man, who was shot, but slowly shook his head, saying we lost him.

                “What the fuck was THAT?!?!?” my sergeant yelled, resting against the wall of one of the houses, trying to catch his breath. I turned to him and replied, “I don’t know”. Just then a metallic black arm busted through the wall he was leaning against and grabbed him by the throat, lifting him up into the air so his feet couldn’t touch the ground. A few of my men took aim readying to fire at it. “No you’ll hit him” I yelled. “Try and pry it off of him” I ordered. Three of my men ran up to the arm and desperately tried to pry it off the sergeant, as his face was turning purple and his eyes began to bulge. We all heard the loud snap, and watched the life drain from his eyes. The arm dropped him and he fell into a heap on the sand. One of the men who had been trying to pry the arm off ran up to the hole and stuck his blaster through, before I could tell him not to. I watched as the blaster was ripped from his grip and the black arm grabbed on to the top of his head and slammed him repeatedly against the wall, till his skull cracked wide open. We all we’re now backed up a few paces from the wall, training our blasters on it.

                That’s when we heard, “Tick tock, tick tock. You’re running out of time”, it came out sing-song and when we looked to its source, there was a girl probably in her teens. She was wearing black shorts and white tank top, her blonde ponytail was lightly bouncing from side to side, but the most disturbing thing was she looked like she was wearing a mask made from bone. A few of us took our attention off the wall and trained our blasters on her. “W-who are you?” I asked trying to hide the fear from my voice. She started to laugh; it was light and happy, and completely unsettling for a time like this. “Oh Sweetie, this isn’t the time to get to know one another. This is the time you should start running” she replied in that same happy tone. “I’m a lieutenant in the army of the New Republic and with the power vested in me, I am ordering you to stand down” I replied. She laughed that sickeningly unbelievable innocent again and said simply, “I like your jacket”. I was unnerved, my pulse was picking up by the second, and I had given her fair warning so I order my men, “Fire”. We all pulled the trigger but this little girl pulled out a red double bladed lightsaber, faster than we thought possible, and deflected the blaster fire. “Our turn” she replied in a whisper, but I was sure everyone in my unit heard it. She charged right at us deflecting any shots we fired at her, while two Twi’ lek girls jumped off some nearby roofs and began cutting my men apart. I watched in horror as a few of my men backed up against the wall where the sergeant had died and were subsequently cut apart by lightsabers that came through the wall. I blinked and when I opened my eyes again all my men were dead, I looked up and saw the wall where the sergeant had died explode out into the street causing dust, dirt, and sand to blow everywhere. When it cleared a human boy with a robotic arm and a Zabrak, or what I thought was a Zabrak (it was hard to tell with the bone mask on his face), walked into the street. Then the blonde girl kneeled in front of me, I knew it was over and left my weapon by my side as I waited to die. “Run” she told me. I looked at her confused for a second, asking “You’re letting me go?” And there was that laugh again, “No silly, it’s just more fun when you run” she said. “Why should I care about you havin’ fun? Just get it over with” I replied bitterly. “You should care because there are a lot more horrible ways to die than being hunted” she said coolly. Just then one of my men, who I thought had been dead, began to stir; he raised his blaster aiming it at her but the Zabrak noticed and picked him off the ground saying, “We got a live one”. The blonde girl turned to him and said, “GREAT!! Now we can have a demonstration”. Before I knew what was going on they had forced my man to his knees and in front of me, the Zabrak held both his arms behind his back while the man with the robotic arm held me still. The blonde girl looked between me and my man excitedly and then looking at me said, “Pay close attention”. She then turned towards my man and put her hand against his stomach. Nothing happened at first and then I heard him let out a bloodcurdling scream, then came the bones cracking, his chest literally caving in and compacting, and then the blood; so much blood pouring from his mouth, his eyes, and his ears. I saw the look of desperation in his eyes, and his silent plea for it to end. Eventually it did and they dropped what was left of him in the dirt. She then turned around to me and said, “If you don’t run. I’m going to use the force and crush your insides, just like I did him” I looked at her wide eyed and said, “Y-you’ree jedi-i?” “NO!! We’re sith, how stupid can you be!?!”she asked rhetorically, her tone no longer that of amusement but anger. She backed up and took a few breaths; the others all remained where they were. She then came back and with the same happy tone as before asked, “So what’s it going to be honey?” “I’ll run” I replied, thinking maybe I could warn the others in town. “Marvelous, just one more thing” she said, and then destroyed the sand speeder I came here on with a few strokes of her lightsaber. She then turned to me and said, “Now you can start running, you get a head start”. I got up quickly and ran as fast as my tired body would carry me through as many streets as I could trying to distance myself from them. I had to warn someone, I couldn’t save my team maybe I could save someone though. It was then I heard that laugh, it resonated through the streets following me, hounding me and I knew there was little chance I’d ever make it off this planet alive.

**_ Vin POV:  _ **

                I was walking behind Velkav as she led the way, Rolf was beside me and the stormtroopers were behind me. I could hear distant blaster fire and smiled to myself, happy that the others were having fun. Just then Velkav put her hand up, bringing us all to a stop. I walked up next to her and asked, “What is it?” “The next street has the candidate we’re looking for. But I can feel something strange, jedi I think”. I nodded to her and signaled for the Stormtroopers to ready their F-11D blasters and then told Rolf to stay there, till I signaled for him. We came around the corner and sure enough there were two figures cloaked in brown robes, presumably jedi, along with a few New Republic soldiers and what looked to be civilians. I pulled out my blaster and when I started firing so did my stormtroopers. The jedi reacted quickly drawing their lightsabers (one green, one blue) but they couldn’t deflect all the bolts and some who were standing too far away fell. We stopped firing when their deflections started zeroing in on us. A few New Republic soldiers standing behind the jedi, decided to return fire now and Velkav and I subsequently deflected their shots, but with far greater lethality than the jedi had just did, thus killing a few more. “Sith” one of the jedi breathed out and I smiled behind my mask. I saw the last New Republic soldier standing; he was holding a small human child in his arms. This must be the candidate, I thought. “Give us the child and we’ll leave you in peace. Refuse and we’ll leave you in pieces” I said, of course that wasn’t true but I hoped it might work and I’d get the child faster. “Captain, get to the ship. Call in support and get the child off world, NOW!” One of the jedi, the older one with the green lightsaber, said. The captain didn’t have to be told twice, and quickly ran off, presumably to the ships. “You can’t win this. We’ve been trained by the greatest jedi alive, Luke Skywalker. Put your weapons down and surrender and maybe we can find a way to reclaim you from the dark side” the one with the green lightsaber said. I couldn’t help but laugh and replied, “No thanks, but tell you what if you put your lightsabers down I promise to kill you quick”. “So be it” the one with the blue lightsaber finally spoke. They both then closed their eyes and raised their right hands, I knew what they were doing and Velkav and I quickly reinforced our stances using our own force power to increase the strength in our legs. A second later and I could feel the jedi attempt to force push us away, but it didn’t work as we just simply drove our heels into the dirt and stayed exactly where we were. S.O.-0566 and S.O.-3321 weren’t as lucky as they flew back and slammed their heads against a building with a loud thwack. “Our turn” I said, looking at Velkav. I felt it tingle up my spine, cackle along the veins of my arms to my finger tips and then the lightning shot out at them. They barely had time to raise their lightsabers to absorb it and they clearly had never seen anything like it. Before they had time to recover Velkav and I were on top of them, with our lightsabers on. Velkav fought the one with the blue lightsaber while I fought the one with the green. I struck right, but he blocked. Then I tried feigning left and coming down with an overhead strike but he blocked again. I pulled a few steps back and using my left hand I fired the blaster at his midsection a few times and charged him. He deflected or dodged all the shots and then blocked my lightsaber strike. I pulled back again and realized, he wasn’t attacking only defending and while I could beat his defense alone it would take some time, which I didn’t have and that’s when an idea popped into my head. I attacked him again with overhead strikes and then brought the blaster up to shoot him in the stomach but he used his spare hand to hold my blaster off to the side away from him. “What’s the matter never faced a challenge before?” he asked. I smiled at him and clicked my tongue against my teeth two times; sound off a loud click click noise. He looked confused for the several seconds we remained like that but then Rolf was there jumping up and biting into his shoulder. The jedi let out a scream and his sword hand faltered, so I cut it off and let his lightsaber hit the ground. The jedi fell on his back, Rolf continuing to tear into his shoulder, and while I would’ve enjoyed watching him die slowly we had a mission to complete so I raised my blaster and shot him a few times in the chest. I then turned to Velkav and saw her toying with the young jedi, wielding the blue lightsaber. “Stop playing with him, we have to move” I told her. She flashed me a small smile, as she parried a few more of his attacks. He then tried to get her with an overhead strike and I knew it was game over. Velkav shifted her body ever so subtly forward and then turned off her lightsaber for a second before turning it back on. The jedi couldn’t stop himself as his blade struck the ground and the forward momentum brought Velkav’s blade through his eyes, effectively taking off the top of his head. Velkav then turned to me fully, with a smile on her face. “Showoff” I called her, with a small smile.  She smiled and took a few steps so she was standing nose to nose with me and said, “Don’t pretend to be offended. My finesse is one of the things you love about me” and then planted a quick kiss to my lips. She then turned around and force jumped onto the nearest rooftop saying, “Come on, we got to go catch that captain”. I nodded to her and then looked at Rolf and said, “Stay with the stormtroopers”. He gave a small bark and then turned around running to the unconscious stormtroopers, as I turned and jumped onto the same rooftop as Velkav.

                We sprinted and jumped across the tan roofs of this Tatooine shithole, looking for the captain, and then we saw him. Not too far ahead of us and one street over. We quickly jumped to the rooftops nearest to him and then jumped down from there to the street he was on. He disappeared around a corner and we followed him. We were greeted with a squad of New Republic men and the opened fire on us. I pulled Velkav back behind the corner with me and she said, “We don’t have time for this”. I looked at her and said, “Give it a second”. She turned to me with a serious expression and was shocked to see me smiling. “What are you planning?” she asked, quirking her brow. I smiled at her and said, “You’ll see”. A few seconds later I could hear them saying they were going to move in and I decided now was the time. I came around the corner and blindly shooting off force lightning. The idiots had clustered and the lightning was able to jump from one to the next till they were all sufficiently crispy. Velkav came around the corner then and looked and the charred and smoking bodies, saying, “Smart, but we need to move”. And then we were once again chasing the captain as fast as we could.

                The next opportunity we had at seeing him was when he had managed to make it to the eastern clearing where the New Republic transport ship was waiting. He was sprinting towards his ship and even if we used to force to enhance our abilities, I doubted we could catch him in time. It was then I noticed Velkav raise her lightsaber, getting ready to throw it at him. “Don’t” I told her, “You’ll hit the candidate”. She looked at me exasperated and said, “We can’t let him report this”. When she turned back to throw her lightsaber though it was clear he was too far away for a guaranteed kill, so she let out a small growl and we continued after him. It was too late however he made it up the stairs of his transport craft and he turned around, preparing to close the door, it was at that moment when a brilliant red blade burst through his chest at a high angle avoiding the child. Even from far away I could see his eyes go wide in shock. I then saw an arm come around the side and slip in under the child, the blade turned off and he fell to his knees; and there stood Akela, with her mask off and a smile on her face. She turned the captain head to see into her eyes, whispered something into his ear, and then finally pressed a kiss to his cheek. After that he fell over face first and tumbled down the transport stairs. Velkav and I approached her calmly now I saw she was wearing a New Republic jacket, with the nametag Daniels sewn to the front (undoubtedly her latest trophy), and I asked her, “What are you doing here? And where is your mask?” “Saving your ass and right here” she replied smugly, tapping the top of her head where she had displaced her mask. “Very funny. I meant why aren’t you killing everyone in town, and why aren’t you wearing your mask? Also where are the others” “I wanted to kill the New Republic guys waiting on the ship and I took the mask off because I felt like it. The others are searching the ship for supplies, information, and whatnot” she replied. Just then a blaster shot rang out and hit Velkav in the back, she fell to the ground and I turned around. The shooter was maybe twenty feet away standing in the open; he was banging on his blaster desperately like it had jammed or something. I raised my hand a force pulled him over to me, he dropped the blaster along the way. I started to clench my hand and force choke him, lifting him a few feet off the ground.

**_ Velkav POV:  _ **

                Well that hurt but the armor seems to have done its job, I thought. As I got up, I saw Vin standing there force choking the life out of the shooter. I stood up, lifted my mask off, and put my hand against his cheek, trying to make his eyes meet mine, as I said, “Vin, baby, look at me. I’m fine. Please look at me”. After several seconds he did. Those azure blue eyes warmed as they met mine and I said, “Vin, you can’t kill him. He might have information we could use” His hand unclenched a little allowing the man to barely wheeze a breath. “We killed everyone else” he replied, with a smile. I kept eye contact with him, knowing it usually allowed me to calm him down, and said, “Vin our priority was the candidate we didn’t have time to take prisoners. Now that we have him though, we should think about what is tactically wise. You can’t kill him”. He smiled at me and said, “I hate it when you’re right I can’t kill him, it would be foolish” he let the man fall to the ground. I breathed out a small breath of relief, but then I saw that smirk and I knew it wasn’t over. Just then he force pulled on the Mirures teeth from his belt and floated it over to the man’s hand. “ _Slit your throat_ ” Vin said to the man. “No” I yelled but it was too late, the man was doing as he was told and his blood sprayed out onto the sand. When his husk lay there motionless, Vin walked over and put the tooth back in his belt. I could hear Akela laughing, saying, “That was awesome, let’s find someone else”. I turned to her and motioned for the child, she handed it over to me without protest. I then heard Vin get on coms and order Fazior to bring his men into town, and do a clean sweep and for a tech team to come and pull the data drives from the New Republic ship. He then invited Akela and the others to go with Fazior, which they were all too happy to do.

**_ Vin POV:  _ **

**[ one hour later]**

               I was walking with Velkav back to the ship, she hadn’t said a word to me since I killed that potential source of information. The others were all having fun, literally tearing up the town and then burning it all to the ground. Special Division had one golden rule never leave evidence and my squad always made sure to follow that rule. I walked with her through the cargo hold, stood next to her in the elevator, and then sat next to her once we were in the recreations room and still she hadn’t said anything. “Come on, love he had tried to kill you. I couldn’t let him live” I finally said, with a loud sigh. “Vin do you realize how valuable he might’ve been?!? He was working with jedi, he could have known where Luke is! We could’ve found him and finished off the last jedi master in existence!!” she said, angrily. We sat there quietly for a few minutes, the only noise coming from the cooing baby, soon to be turned over for his own sith training. Finally I decided to risk it an asked, “So how angry are you with me?” Velkav looked at me, with a sad smile and a small chuckle, and said, “I’m not angry at you, just your lack of perspective. You’re such a brilliant strategist in everything we do from games to missions, but now when we have a real shot at taking out one of the biggest threats to us, to all we hope to achieve you decide to throw logic out the window and act like Akela killing first and asking questions later.” “It’s because of you” I said quietly but loud enough for her to hear. She turned to me clearly wanting me to elaborate so I did saying, “Whenever I see you in trouble, whenever I think you’re going to get hurt, I can’t bear it I just do whatever I feel is necessary”. She smiled at me and said, “I know the feeling. But if an opportunity like this ever comes up again, you’ll do the smart thing right?” I nodded and with that she scooted closer and rested her head against my chest and I wrapped an arm around her and we just sat there. It was completely quiet; even the baby seemed to be enjoying the peace and quiet.

             After a few minutes I looked at her and the baby and asked, “What do you think his name is?” She smiled and said, “I don’t think we ever caught it?” “Well then what do you wanna call him?” “You really wanna discuss baby names with me?” she asked with a large sweet smile, that was reserved just for me. “Yes” I replied. “Well then let’s see. We could call him Derick or David, or Joseph. Or we could name him after someone like Horvo or Snoke or even Vin” she said still smiling widely. “Killian” I said looking back at her. I saw her eyes light up a bit and she said rocking him gently, “Yeah, Killian. I love it, our little Killian”. The moment was disturbed when Fazior came over the coms, “Sir, we found something”. “Can’t it wait” I replied, annoyed. “Sir, we found the location of Luke’s jedi academy on the ships data drives” he replied excitedly. Velkav looked at me with wide eyes and I looked at her with a smile, and said “looks like we didn’t lose our chance to get rid of our biggest threat after all.”


	13. The Rival

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was just going to write a big chapter like usual but I have no idea how long that would take and it's been a while since I've posted so here you go.

_**Vin POV:** _

               “Sir we will be arriving at The Academy very shortly” Fazior said, over the communicator. “Thank you, for letting me know” I replied groggily, still trying to wipe away the tiredness from my eyes. It had been a long night, Killian had kept me and Velkav up for most of it. It was then that I noticed there wasn’t that familiar weight next to me. I looked over to the far corner and there she wearing a long-sleeved white shirt and pajama pants, her hair all put up in a messy pony tail. She was rocking Killian in her arms humming him a little tune and letting him play with the silver necklace I made for her. Looking at the girl I love rocking a child in her arms, while Rolf laid at her feet, I thought to myself she has never looked so beautiful and I couldn’t imagine how anything could go wrong. In less than second, Killian managed to unfasten the silver sheath and cut himself with the Mirures’ tooth. Velkav quickly pressed her sleeve against the cut, trying to stop it from bleeding. Killian began to wail, which in turn upset Rolf. Rolf turned his head to me, and I knew what he wanted. I quickly stood up out of bed, all sleepiness set aside, and walked over to Velkav. She was completely focused on Killian, “Give him to me” I said calmly. She spared a glance at me and then looked back to the child, pressing her sleeve more firmly against his cut chin. I got down on my knees in front of her and extended my hands, “Give him here” I tried again. She looked at me for a second before handing him over. I looked down at how pitiful he was him, with tears flowing down the sides of his cheeks which we turned red from all his wailing. It was then that I lowered him to the floor and set him down gently. I scooted back a foot, Velkav looked at me like I was insane and was about to pick him back up, when Rolf came over to him. Rolf gave Killian a few good sniffs then he began licking the wound. Killian immediately stopped crying and after a few minutes Rolf stopped. I picked Killian back up then and looked at Velkav, asked “Did you forget massif’s salvia can act as a local anesthetic?” She looked at me her wide eyes narrowing and said, “Yes, but it was a very stressful situation”.

             I smiled back at her, and then got up walking out of the room into the common area. The whole squad was there still celebrating our big win, Akela looked over at me and asked, “What’s going on?” “Killian here, has sustained a little injury. I need to get him a small bacta patch” I replied. Before I could say anything else Oarukdakuf had jumped off the couch and ran to get a bacta patch, she had become rather attentive to the whole squad after her sister sustained those burns on Feroxus. By the time Velkav was standing next to me, Oarukdakuf had already grabbed the bandage, carefully applied it on Killian and took him from my arms, gently rocking him back and forth trying to soothe him, despite him being in no real discomfort. “Has everyone filled out their after-action reports?” I asked. The whole squad nodded. Akela then stood up, saying “I’m very proud of mine”, she then turned around her electronic tablet. On it was a crude picture of a stick figure (presumably her), standing over a pile of other stick figures (presumably dead people). “Masterfully done” Velkav told her, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Aww, thanks V. I always knew you were a pile of fluff on the inside” Akela said, in an innocent tone, pretending like she didn’t understand Velkav’s sarcasm. All of us burst out laughing at this point, except Velkav. She just gritted her teeth lightly and said, “I’ll be issuing a challenge for that”. Akela stopped her laughing long enough to stammer out, “Still totally worth it”. “We have arrived” Fazior announced over the intercom.

             It didn’t take long after that, soon we were walking out of _The Ravager_ and into the hanger. Something was wrong, I knew Hux was scheduled to be at this facility and whenever he was here he always came to greet me after a mission. I turned to Velkav who was currently holding Killian and said, “Get the potential to Horvo, I need to talk to Snoke”. She gave me a small nod, we had decided on Tatooine to give the news to Snoke in person (I doubt resistance or New Republic operatives would be able to intercept the message, but with an opportunity like this you can never be too careful). I quickly walked to the elevator and practically ran all the way to Snoke’s office. I stopped just outside Snoke’s door, I looked at the deep auburn shading of the hardwood door and took a large breath, trying to compose myself. I then pushed the door open, unannounced as usual (Snoke always let me take certain liberties that no one else got).

**_ Ben Solo POV: _ **

               “…so that’s what happened. Now will you teach me the ways of the force, so I may become as strong as my grandfather Darth Va—“ I stopped mid-word as a very serious looking teenager came into the room. He had blonde hair parted like that general I just met, he was well built not overly muscular but still strong looking. If he was surprised to see me, he didn’t let it show. All he did was quickly run his eyes from my shoes to my face, and when his cold blue eyes met mine I felt a chill come up my spine. Whoever this guy was, I could feel he was dangerous. “Ah, Vin. As you can see I’m in a meeting right now, if you wait outside for a few minutes I can finish this up and then you can tell me about how well your mission went” Snoke said, addressing this young man with a level of affection I didn’t anticipate. “With all due respect, I have some very important information” he replied, coolly. I felt my eyes go wide at this point, somehow this guy, named Vin apparently, was so important to Snoke he was allowed to get away with an impertinent tone when talking with the Supreme Leader. Snoke sat back into his chair, and made a small waving gesture for Vin to continue. “I found the location of Luke’s jedi academy” he said, letting a bright confident smile stretch across his face. I smiled at this and said with a small chuckle, “Well it doesn’t seem like that information is gonna be very useful anymore”. In an instant I felt my chair flip over and I was flung to the wall, I couldn’t move much at all and it was difficult to breath. “VIN LET HIM GO” I heard Snoke say, commandingly. I then heard a sigh like that of a petulant child, and then I was released. I fell to the ground gasping a little and trying to regain my bearings. “Wait outside, Vin” Snoke said. Coughing a little, I managed to set my chair right side up again and sat down in it. I looked at Snoke and asked, “Who is he?” Snoke smiled a little and said, “That would be your new squad leader”


	14. The Rival (Part 2)

**_ Vin POV:  _ **

             I let the Mirures’ tooth weave its way in between my fingers, running a circuit again and again around my hand using only the force to guide its way. I sat there for a few minutes my head against the wall, eyes closed. I felt a familiar presence, long before I ever heard his footfalls. It wasn’t long till I could feel him come around the nearest corner and continue walking towards me. His footfalls slowed, I smiled to myself, he never won this game anymore and yet he always still played it with me. When he was about five feet from me, eyes still closed I asked, “How have you been general?” Hux let out a sigh of defeat, and then a small chuckle as he responded, “I’ve been good.” He then quirked his head to the side ever so slightly and asked, “Why are you out here? Snoke never keeps you waiting”. I let out a small huff and replied, “Snoke apparently didn’t like me disciplining that insolent little nerf herder in there” Hux smiled and said, “I don’t like him much either. But he did kill all the jedi at Luke’s school, so I …” “WHAT?!?!” I interrupted. Hux nodded and said, “That’s right he murdered them all, good riddance” “He killed Luke Skywalker?” I asked in disbelief. Hux immediately began shaking his head no, and I felt my heart rate slow down a little. He then said, “He couldn’t possibly have done that. No he killed all the younglings and jedi-to-be, and then sent a communication saying he wanted to be trained by Snoke. My men and I were the ones to pick him up”. He looked back and forth down each side of the hallway and seeing that it was clear he knelt down closer to me and said, “It looks like he killed most of the older ones in their sleep, there was no honor in any of the kills just savagery”. He seemed like he was going to say more but the door to Snoke office opened, and he quickly stood up, straightening out his uniform and saluting. “At ease, general” Snoke said, “Did you bring what I asked for?” Hux’s arm dropped back to his side and for the first time I saw that he had been carrying a small bag with the other arm and he handed the bag to Snoke saying, “Yes sir, here it is”. Snoke took it with a smile and replied, “Very good, you are dismissed” and with a dismissive flick of his wrist, the general turned and walked down the hall. It was then that the young man, the jedi killer, appeared just behind Snoke shoulder. Snoke turned to him and said, “This belonged to your grandfather and now I think it is only right that you should have it”. Snoke handed him the bag and as the man looked inside I saw his eyes light up with wonderment. Before I could get a look inside myself Snoke turned to me and said, “This is Ben he’ll be joining Rancor squad”. His tone was final and left no room for argument. I felt my jaw clench tightly but nodded all the same. “Now come. You can debrief me on your latest mission” he said, opening the door to his office wider and beckoning me inside. As I walked in I turned to Ben and said, “Wait here”, he looked as if he was going to argue but when I added a bit more authoritatively, “That’s an order”, he backed down. With that done, I walked into Snoke’s office ready to tell him all about my mission and how my squad killed two jedi with lightsaber, who most definitely weren’t sleeping at the time of their executions. “So little one, what happened on your mission?” Snoke asked, as I stepped into the room and took a seat in front of his desk. I took a deep breath and then started my story, “Well sir…”

**[ten minutes later]**

I sat back smiling at Snoke, proud of how effectively I did my job despite the obstacles.

  ** _Snoke POV:_**

             I sat up carefully, careful not to clench my fists to tightly. “So you went against protocol?” I asked coolly, keeping the dangerous edge from entering my tone. Vin simply nodded like it was no big deal. I took a deep breath and calmly ordered, “Never do that again”. His face fell and he stood up quickly, defensively saying, “I was only doing what you wanted. You asked for me to retrieve the potential and I did, I even killed a few of those who would have opposed us”. Giving him a hard glare, I replied, “It is not your place to question protocol, you are meant to obey”. His right hand crushed into a fist and the chair, he was just sitting in, crumbled in on itself. A few of my sith bodyguards, including Raz, made moves to get their lightsabers but I gave subtle shake of my head telling them not to. I looked Vin in the eye and said, “It would be wise for you to remember to control yourself, both in my presence and when you’re in the field”. He deflated a little and bowed his head, waiting to be dismissed. “Ben is important Vin, you will take care of him” I said. I watched his jaw clench a little tighter but he nodded and with that I unceremoniously dismissed him from my office. Once he was out of my office I turned to Raz and said, “Bring me rancor squad’s after-action reports” “Which ones?” he asked. “All of them” I replied.

**_ Vin POV:  _ **

             I was just doing what he wanted, he never even had to ask me to do it. What did he want? Had he wanted me to let the potential get away? I was still thinking over what went wrong when my eyes landed on Ben. He had waited just like I had ordered him to, leaning against the wall opposite to the door of Snoke’s office. With the tilt of my head I let him know to follow me. I was content to walk in silence but after about the third turn, he began speaking. “So how long have you been here?” he asked, timidly. I smirked, how was this boy going to survive here. He was a sniveling little man with the fear radiating off him in waves. I looked at him from the corner of my eye, and replied, “A little over five years now”. He simply nodded and I thought that would be the end of it, but then he asked, “How old are you?” “Fourteen” I replied stiffly. “You?” I asked, with a bit of bite to my tone. “Twenty-three” he replied. We walked for a bit longer in thankfully blissful silence, through the main lobby with the elevators, but then he asked, “Where is the nearest bathroom?” I let out a sigh, walked around two corners and pointed him to the nearest lavatory. He nodded his head in thanks and hurriedly walked into the bathroom taking that bag Snoke gave him with him.

**_ Ben Solo POV:  _ **

             I quickly walked into the nearest stall, setting the bag down with care on the floor in front of me as I pulled down the toilet lid and sat there. I took this time to take a few deep breaths, this is where I was supposed to be this was my destiny. My grandfather was the most feared sith of all time, and I will be just as strong as him. I’ll make them see it, I’ll make them all see it. I carefully unzipped the bag and delicately reached inside. I pulled my grandfather’s mask closer to me so our foreheads rested against each other. After a few minutes I felt better. I stood up and walked out, making my way over to the line of sinks. I washed my hands quickly and splashed a bit of cool water on my face, hoping it would give me a better sense of composure.  “Hello there” a voice said from beside me. I looked over to him and saw a man with slicked back blonde hair and well-groomed goatee just starting to go grey. He wore a First Order uniform, an officer of some kind. “Who are you?” I asked. He gave me a smile, it seemed genuine, and as he began washing his hands he replied, “General Mikail Vale, pleased to meet you… whoever you are?” “I’m Ben Solo” I replied carefully. “Ahh, so you’re the newcomer” he said with a look of understanding as he began to dry his hands. I wanted to ask how or what he heard about me but he was already moving on. Saying, “So you’re going to be on Vin’s squad, right?” I nodded slowly. “Well that great!” he exclaimed at the same time he gave a large pat on my back “Vin will certainly take you places” “What?” I blurted out, not really thinking just curious to know what he meant. He chuckled and replied, “Right you’re new, sorry. Vin is… well Vin is Vin. Snoke has been grooming that boy for years and pretty soon now he’ll ascend to take his rightful position.” “What position?” “As Snoke’s right hand, of course. Vin will be second to no one but him, both special division and regular First Order officers will fall in line behind him and they’ll do so happily, after all he’s made quite the name for himself. He’ll be the bridge between special division and the rest of the First Order, and all those old animosities between the two will be forgotten.” I looked at him again, ready to ask a million questions but he had already began walking out. Just before he reached the door however he turned to look at me and said, “Yes Vin will certainly take you places… just make sure not to piss him or his squad off, they’re not enemies you want to have” and with that he walked out the door and back into the hallway. I looked back into the mirror briefly and said to myself, “You can do this”. I then turned and walked out the door.

**_ Vin POV:  _ **

             “Tell my little girl hello for me would you?” Mikail asked. “Of course general. If you want I can schedule it so she has a free day to spend with you tomorrow, I know it’s been a while since you two have seen each other” I replied. “I wouldn’t want to interfere with the inner workings of your squad” Mikail said, rather unconvincingly to the point where I didn’t need to be a force user to know he was lying. “Nonsense, Mikail. I don’t ever mind giving my squad a day of rest after an op, I’d be happy to do it” I said with a smile. “Thank you, Vin. It is very kind of you” Mikail replied, with a large smile. “Say nothing of it my friend” I said extending my hand out, which he eagerly shook. With that I dismissed him and he began walking down the hall, with just a bit more bounce in his step. I smiled to myself, thinking of how such small favors gain so much loyalty. The next thing I heard was the bathroom door opening and I watched Ben walk out of it, he looked a bit better than he had before. He looked at me expectantly and after giving him a small nod we set off down the halls to the training room.

             As we entered, I quickly surveyed the room. Everything seemed to be in order and everyone was simply waiting for me… but then my eyes landing on Velkav, as they so often do of their own volition, and I saw a small bundle wrapped up in her arms. I walked over and as I got closer my suspicions were proved true, as I saw Killian laying swaddled in her arms in a small imperial regulation grey blanket. Her beautiful forest green eyes met mine, and she quickly answered my unasked question, saying, “Horvo isn’t here and he won’t be for a few days”. I took a deep breath and nodded, coming to stand next to her. “Is he yours?” Ben asked wide-eyed and with an utterly dumb expression. Akela and Ish-del burst out laughing, Nokrao and Oarukdakuf at least had the decency to try and hide their laughs, and ever serious Oocozreso didn’t do anything at all. “No” I replied coldly, “He is just a potential force user we picked up”. Ben quickly nodded his understanding. I then looked at little Killian wrapped up in his blanket and I turned to Velkav saying, “Well I guess, we should ask Snoke who we should give him to, till Horvo gets back” She placed her hand on the crook of my arm before saying, “Vin, I wanna take care of him”. I looked at her as if she was crazy for a few seconds, but when she added a quite please and began nervously worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, how could I have said no. So I nodded and she gave me that pretty little smile of hers and I would have been content to stand there for hours just looking at her. The moment was interrupted however by Ben who said “So, are we gonna train or what?” “Sure, pair off with one of the twins and practice hand-to-hand combat” I replied, not really caring what he did as long as I didn’t have to deal with him for a little while. “Hand-to-hand?” he asked, laughing a little and then saying, “Why would we need to know hand-to-hand combat, we have lightsabers” he patted the silver lightsaber at his side to emphasize his point. “We practice hand-to-hand in case we lose our lightsabers” Velkav answered him tersely. “Also have you ever snapped someone’s neck with your bare hands? It feels awesome, and the noise it makes is just perfect” Akela added, with a happy sigh. “So you guys plan on losing your lightsabers, because I can keep a firm grip on mine” Ben replied, coyly. He was challenging us, perhaps he thought he was better than us. It really doesn’t matter what his reasoning was, he needs to learn his place. “Alright Ben, you get your wish. I’ll even let you select your own opponent.” I told him.

**_ Ben POV: _ **

I smiled, maybe now I could prove how good I really was. If I could beat one them in combat, I could earn the others’ respect. I looked each of them over. The zabrak was impressively muscular and probably could take me in a fight. I turned my head to see a human with a robotic arm, he could also prove difficult to beat. Vin certainly wasn’t an option and neither was that brunette girl standing next to him, her eyes were too cold and calculating. The blonde girl with magenta eyes was an option, but her smile was too wide, it was as if she was baiting me to pick her. So, that left the Twi’lek girls, they looked to be twins, but one of them had burns all across the left side of her body. I could see burns at her ankles, she had them on left her arm too and a few seemed to reach up the left side of her neck (I could only assume the continued under her t-shirt and pants, stretching across most of her body). I thought that perhaps the injury would weaken her, so with determination I raised my hand and pointed to her. Vin’s expression was blank as he said, “Oocozreso, looks like you’re up”. She gave a brief nod and then walked towards the center of the room. I followed. Vin went through the rules of the fight, it was simple really, don’t kill the other person, you can tap out, and don’t leave the fifteen-foot circle, he drew on the floor with a white piece of chalk. He instructed us to walk to different sides of the ring, and then he said, “Oh and one last thing this duel is to be fought with lightsabers only, no force powers allowed.” He looked directly at me challengingly, so I kept my mouth shut about the stupid rule. “Alright then,” he said, “you may begin.”  

I pulled my dominant foot back, turned my lightsaber on letting the blue light bathe the area around me, and prepared my lightsaber for a parry, just like I was taught. “YOU”RE USING THE WRONG COLOR” the blonde girl yelled, much to the group’s amusement as they all started uncontrollably laughing till Vin held his hand up, gaining instant silence. Smiling a little I thought when I beat her they’ll all give me the respect I deserve. To my surprise Oocozreso pulled two lightsabers out, quickly turning them on. She twirled the blades around her wrists, swirling the crimson blades with ease. “That’s not fair she has two” I said quickly. The whole team burst out laughing, except for Vin. All Vin did was smile, he then raised his hand again and immediately the giggles stopped. “You selected your opponent, it just so happens you picked someone who uses two lightsabers instead of one. Now you can either deal with it or you can concede, which will it be?” he asked with a smirk. Knowing there was nothing I could do, I simply turned to face my opponent. A few seconds later she made her approach. She brought her left blade down against mine and held it there, while quickly stabbing at a lower angle with her right. I barely had time to dodge. This went on for a couple of minutes, she would occupy my lightsaber with one of hers and then strike with the other. I realized that the only thing I could do was go on the offensive. I lunged at her, she dodged and kicked me square in the back so hard that I hit the floor. When I got up she was just standing there with an infuriating smirk on her face. I could feel myself getting angry, and I decided to let that anger guide my blade for my next attack. Her blades though caught mine in a counter and she elbowed my shoulder, where I had left myself open. The hit turned my body and threw me off balance, before I knew what was happening she again kicked me to the floor. As I got up this time I heard Vin say, “Oocozreso, that’s enough. Stop playing with him and end this”. By the time, I turned to meet her she was already bringing both her blades down, I barely had time to raise my own in a block. I then felt her kick me in the stomach, as I was off balance she followed up with a series of lightning quick slashes. I dodged and blocked as fast as I could, I was lucky as I could feel the heat of her blade more than a few times but it never connected. “Oocozreso wins” Vin said. I turned to him, about to question why. He must have known because he was already pointing towards my feet. When I looked down I saw that I had stepped outside the circle. Oocozreso bowed slightly to Vin and then quickly walked over to the other Twi’lek.

I stood there frozen, I had lost. I had lost to a teenage girl, ME THE GRANDSON OF DARTH VADER. I quickly looked at Vin and said, “Again”. “What was that?” Vin asked, quirking an eyebrow. “AGAIN” I yelled, “Let me fight her again”. Vin smiled at that and said, “You could fight her a thousand more times and the outcome would always be the same”. I took a few steps forward lightsaber still in hand. “Honestly, you need to realize fighting a sith is on a whole different level than fighting a jedi, or rather slaughtering some jedi younglings in their sleep”, he said with a confident smirk. I raised my blade quickly and tried to strike down this insolent patronizing child, only to be blocked not by one crimson blade but three. The zabrak, the blonde, and the brunette had all moved their blades up to defend Vin, he on the other hand hadn’t moved, he didn’t even flinch. “And do you know why you’d always come up short against her?” he asked, like nothing happened, like my attempt to kill him meant nothing at all. I stood there for a few seconds, my eyes locked on to him, my blade still trying to end his life. “Well do you?” he asked, cooly still with that confident smirk on his face.

I turned my blade off and clipped my lightsaber back onto my belt, saying, “It’s because I picked the wrong opponent”. Vin smiled and with a flick of his wrist the zabrak and girls stood down. He then stepped forward walking to the center of the ring, his back turned to me, saying “Not exactly. Sure, in part that was the reason, in the way that you ever thought someone like you could beat one of us.” I gritted my teeth, charging him quickly, again turning on my blade readying to strike. The others weren’t in between us anymore, they wouldn’t be able to protect him. I’ll kill this arrogant boy and then Snoke will see how truly powerful I am, I’ll rise to be his right-hand not this boy. By the time, I started my swing Vin hadn’t moved, but then before I could connect he dodged the blade expertly. He then grabbed my wrist twisting it painfully till I dropped my lightsaber. Before I could even hear my blade hit the ground he had already unveiled his own lightsaber and held it a few inches from my throat. When I looked at the blade, I saw it was black instead of crimson. Turning my eyes to him, I knew I was completely at his mercy. “It’s also because your technique is sloppy, and when you get angry you become amazingly predictable” he said, again his voice was cool and nonchalant. He let me wiggle free from his grasp and a crawled a little bit away from him. He then leaned over and picked up my lightsaber clipping it to his own belt. “Now it’s time to see if your even worth training” he said. He raised his hand singling for a few dark troopers in the corners of the room to step forward. “You know what to do” he told them.

**_ Vin POV:  _ **

             Honestly, I don’t see what Snoke likes so much about this guy, but orders are orders and if he is going to be on my team I need him to be strong. The dark troopers began turning on their Z6 riot control batons as they approached Ben still curled up in the middle of the room. When they finally made a circle, they began beating him. We all stood there watching the spectacle for a few minutes. “Vin, can I help them” Akela asked, with a pleading look in her eye. “No Akela… after all I do want him to remain in one piece or even just alive for that matter” I replied. It was then that I noticed the bag laying on the training room floor, the one Snoke had given Ben earlier. “Ish-del get me that, would you?” I asked, pointing to it. Ish-del quickly picked it up and handed it to me. When I looked inside I was shocked to see the mask of Darth Vader, thinking it should have been down in the archives. “THAT’S MINE!!” Ben yelled out from his spot on the floor, and at the same time he used the force to throw the dark troopers away from himself. I smiled, at least this guy was finally showing some potential. “Is that so, because I could have sworn your name was Ben not Darth Vader” I replied. “He was my grandfather, and his mask belongs to ME” he replied hotly, the concrete training floor cracking a bit as his force powers continued to amplify and become unstable. I was about to egg him on further, but Velkav put her hand against my arm silently telling me to defuse the situation. “Fair enough” I said, closing the bag and then tossing it to him. “That’s enough training for one day, let’s get some dinner and then go to bed everyone. Tomorrow is going to be a rest day” I continued, my squad cheering a little when they heard they’d be getting tomorrow off.

**_ Ben POV: _ **

             As we all walked to the mess hall, I could feel a few bruises beginning to form from my fights, I knew I was going to be sore tomorrow. I slowed down a little so I wouldn’t be walking so close to the group, it was then that one of the Twi’leks, the one without the burns approached my side. “Hi, I’m Oarukdakuf” she said, smiling. I looked at her and then quickly turned my head back facing forward. “You’re not gonna survive here, if you keep acting like that” she whispered to me. I again looked at her and this time her smile was gone and her eyes were serious. She let out a small sigh, saying “If you don’t want my help then that’s fine by me, I’m just trying to help”. “Why would you help me?” I asked, before I could stop myself. She turned her eyes away from me then looking straight ahead, smiling. “That was my sister, Oocozreso” she said. A few seconds went by before she continued, her voice a bit shaky, “A few years ago, she got badly burned while we were on a mission…” she blinked a few times, and quickly wiped her eyes with her hand. This time the silence ran for a few minutes before she finally continued saying, in a much cheerier fake tone, “and it was on that day that I promised I would always protect my squad. …You’re part of that squad now, so of course I want to help you”. I thought it over for a few seconds, she had a point. If I am going to survive here I’m going to need all the help I can get. “Thank you” I told her. She smiled back at me and replied, “Happy to help”.

Within a few minutes we were in the mess hall, and after taking her advice on what to eat and what not to eat, I was finally sitting down to talk with Oarukdakuf. “What you doing over here?” Vin asked, looking directly at Oarukdakuf, “Why aren’t you sitting with us?” “I just wanted to help get Ben here acclimated to his new situation, make sure he has a smooth transition from his former life to squad life you know?” Oarukdakuf replied honestly, I was personally a bit worried she decided to answer so truthfully. Vin looked like he wanted to say something, but the brunette came to his side, and quickly whispered something to him. After she walked away Vin looked at us and said, “Very well then” and then proceeded to walked off back to where the rest of the group was sitting. Oarukdakuf must have noticed my surprise when Vin simply walked off, because she said, “Yeah, Velkav has a way with Vin. She helps him stay on track.” I turned to her, and asked, “They are together right?” She laughed, and said, “Yes, yes they are. But that’s not really the critical information you need to know right now is it?” I nodded. “Alright then” she continued, “what you need to know is: one, never, I repeat never, challenge Vin; two, avoid challenging anyone; three…” I interrupted her, asking “Avoid challenging anyone?!?! How am I supposed to gain the respect I deserve?” She sighed before saying, “Listen, I know you must think you’re strong and the fact is you very well might be… but we’re stronger. We’ve had more training and combat experience than you. We were raised for this, to fight to kill, to be stronger than anyone else so no one could even think of challenging us. …It also wouldn’t be that great of an idea for you to challenge anyone considering you couldn’t even beat my sister.” “Why’s that?” “Because she is one of the weaker ones in the group” “What?” I asked, disbelievingly. “Well she’s not that much weaker than Ish-del” she said and then sighed, “here let me start over. In this group, I’m the weakest my connection to the force isn’t particularly strong and while like my sister I may have a fast attack I lack power. Really my biggest asset is working in sync with my sister.” She looked at me, to make sure I understood. I nodded my head and she continued, “My sister would be in the same boat as me, but her connection to the force has been amplified. See sith draw on their emotions their passions and pain for power. When Oarukdakuf got burned and we tried to fix it with bacta… well the nerves got messed up. She is now in a permanent state of pain, and that pain is something she can draw on to make her connection to the force stronger.” “What” I again asked, continuing on, “a person’s connection to the force depends on their midi-chlorian count though. Getting burned wouldn’t have increased that”. “Yes and no” she replied, “it’s true midi-chlorians do factor into someone’s connection to the force, but it’s not the only thing. Having a lot of midi-chlorians will make it easier for someone to connect to the force but even someone with just one midi-chlorian can be stronger than someone with a billion. See in every midi-chlorian there is an infinite amount of power. You were trained to tap into midi-cholrians like a jedi, you let the natural flow of the universe flow through you and then manipulate it slightly. Sith don’t do that, we use emotions and pain to tap into our midi-chlorians more fully making the natural flow of the universe bend to our will. Do you understand?” “Kind of” I replied, still trying to wrap my head around it. After a few a minutes of silence I asked, “So what emotions do the others use?” “Good question” she replied, “well we’re trained to tap into a lot of them and not only our own emotions”. “What do you mean?” “Well, anger and pride are emotions we use that come from us, but we can also tap into our enemies fear to make ourselves stronger. Anyway, the point is each of us has our own way of doing things. Akela for example likes to rely heavily on anger, it affects her battle tactics. She often opts for simple force-techniques and then amplifies them considerably, like force push, or she’ll take a few savage strikes with lightsaber. Ish-del uses the same tactics but he’ll tap into his pride. He likes using his robotic arm to do things others couldn’t even attempt, such as spinning his lightsaber faster than the untrained eye can detect. Nokrao Malick, Velkav’s brother, likes to focus his force powers on amplifying his physical strength and speed, combine that with his already strong physique and you got a very dangerous duelist. His force powers have also benefited from a life of Velkav drilling principles into his head, making it easier for him to do more advance force-techniques. Velkav is textbook, her lightsaber work is perfect her force powers are also rather great, honestly, she is on an entirely different level than everyone else on the squad. Finally, we come to Vin, his force powers are stronger than everyone else’s and while Velkav has textbook lightsaber techniques, Vin is better at variation.” “So, what you’re saying is you are all unbeatable?” I asked. She smiled, “Essentially yes”. “So, what should I do?” “Well that’s simple, work hard and earn the others respect. It will happen, one day once your stronger and once you’ve proved you are worthy of it.” I sighed, saying, “And until then I just need to avoid pissing off Vin, the Malick siblings, Ish-del, Akela, your sister, and you, in that order, right?” She laughed, “Well mostly, obviously, you need to do whatever you can to remain in Vin’s good graces because if you don’t you’re dead. But the Malick siblings were essentially raised all their lives by special division and taught to obey Snoke above all else. So, it’s doubtful they’ll kill you for any minor reasons. As for Ish-del, me and my sister, we all pretty tolerant compared to the others. Pissing us off would be difficult. No who you should really watch out for is Akela. She’s quick to anger and arguably the third strongest in the group, behind Vin and Velkav of course. She is also a bit crazy. Basically, what you need to understand is Akela is Vin go to girl, when he wants a big body count. Sure, the Malick siblings could probably do the job more efficiently but Akela takes a joy in it, she adds finesse.” I looked down at my plate of food, thinking about everything I just heard. “Anyway we should probably talk about something else now” she said smiling. We then began talking about what would be expected of me on a day to day basis.

**[1 hour later]**

**_Vin POV_** :

             I opened my bedroom door to be greeted by Rolf. “Hey buddy” I said, patting him on the head. A few minutes went before I heard a knock on the door. I went to answer it, thinking it be Ben needing to ask some inane question. Instead what I found was a stormtrooper holding a crib, “Velkav requested one of these” he said. I nodded, stood aside and let him carry it into the room telling him to set it up by the bed. As he was doing that Velkav walked in with little Killian laying swaddled in her arms. It was then that a great idea occurred to me. “Hey Velkav what would you say to a teambuilding exercise for Ben?” I asked. She turned to me smiling, and said, “I think that’d be a great idea”. “Then it’s decided” I said clapping my hands together, “a night in the tombs. We’ll go right now” She looked at me with a serious look in her eye, “Are you sure that’s wise?” “You just said we should do team building, I can’t think of anything better to do than that” “Do you think he’s ready?” she asked, trying a different approach. “We could see what he has to say about it” I replied smugly, knowing he would accept any challenge even without knowing what it is first. “What about Killian, we can’t just leave him here and we certainly can’t take him with us” she said, victoriously. It was then that the storm trooper said, “All done”, standing over the now properly constructed and placed crib. I turned to him and said, “ _Would you stay and look after the baby, until me and Velkav get back?”_. He in a dead tone replied, “I’ll stay and look after the baby, until you and Velkav get back. I then turned to Velkav and said, “Looks like it’s decided”


	15. The Tombs

**_ Ben Solo POV:  _ **

             The first thing I realized when I woke up was that the mattress was on top of me. The second thing I realized was someone was yelling “WAKE UP”. As I began to get my senses about me, I looked up and saw Akela standing there smiling. “Get up and get outside” she said. “What’s going on?” I asked, groggily. Looking at the clock I saw it was a little past two in the morning. “Vin wants you outside, you have five minutes, if you’re not out by then I get the privilege of disciplining you” she said, and her grin grew crueler by the second. She then walked out saying over her shoulder, “Four minutes and fifty-three seconds remaining, best get a move on”. I understanding that her threat was very real, began dressing as quickly as possible.

             When I emerged from my room, I saw all of Rancor squad waiting for me. “Lose the lightsaber” Vin ordered. I pulled it from my belt but kept a firm grasp on it. Vin stared at me without anger or apprehension and said in a completely nonchalant tone, “Would you rather lose the hand?” I felt my grip waiver for a second, as I watched him. Slowly he walked towards me, angling his head to the side he looked me up and down. He kept walking closer and closer, till he was right in front of me; I was frozen, unable to move an inch. He dramatically sniffed at me twice, before saying, “We got to work on that fear of yours, it’s coming off you in waves”. He then slowly took the lightsaber from my hand and threw it back in the room. He then turned away from me and began walking, “This way” he said over his shoulder. “Where are, we going?” I asked, just managing to keep the tremble out of my voice. “We’re going on a little exercise, unless that is you’re too scared” he replied, still in that offhanded tone. I steeled myself as quickly as possible and followed the others. We walked continuously through the labyrinthine base, I couldn’t keep track of where we were but after climbing some stairs we came to a halt, behind Vin was a large reinforced durasteel door with what looked like half a dozen locking mechanism on it. “Alright point of no return” Vin said, a grin plastered on his face as his eyes darted from each of his teammates and then to me. No one said anything, with that silent approval he turned around and began unlocking the heavy door. It opened to a small hallway with a ladder at the end of it, we all filed in and Ish-del shut the door behind me careful not to lock it by mistake. Vin then climbed up the ladder and began flipping and unlocking more mechanisms so it too would unlock. It unlocked with a hiss and we all climbed up. As I reached the top I looked around, surprised to find a poorly lit and dusty ruin. “What is this place?” I asked. Velkav answered, “Sith tomb, Korriban is littered with them”. I stood there looking at the large crumbling pillars, they were the only thing keeping the mountain on top of us in place. Oarukdakuf came up next to me and whispered, “Don’t worry the structure is strong, Snoke approved of this route as an emergency escape exit in case the Academy ever got overwhelmed. And as you should know Snoke isn’t prone to making bad choices”. I looked at her with a smile and nodded.

             “Alright let’s go, do this thing” Akela said with her usual exuberance. “Go where? Do what?” I asked. They all exchanged several glances to each other. Oarukdakuf looked ready to tell me but Vin placed a hand on her shoulder, stopping her. He then looked me directly in the eye and said, “You’ll see”. And with that we took off heading down dusty old hallways looking for I don’t know what. As it got darker the others pulled chemlights from their boots and broke them over their knees. A pale-yellow light then took over the dark corridor. Knowing better than to ask for one I decided just to try and stick as close to them as I could. As if knowing that was my intention Vin picked up the pace, leading the group down many twists and turns at such speed that let me know they’ve done this many times before. I couldn’t keep up though and soon I was lagging behind, “Hold up” I yelled to no avail. They kept on running and before I could regain my breath they had turned a corner and I was left alone it utter darkness. Not knowing the way back, I stumbled blindly and as fast as I could towards where I last saw them. I rounded the corner and saw nothing, I steadied myself against the wall, feeling the dusty stone floor beneath my feet. That’s when I heard it behind me, the distinct clinking noise as something sharp came into contact with stone, the sound echoed down the hall. I had no idea what it was or what was causing it. I stumbled quicker down the hall than before, determined to find the others, the clinking noise behind me continued at a steady pace. Then I saw a familiar pale-yellow light down another hallway. I quickened my pace and the clinking noise began increasing its rhythm too. I fell a few times, but I never stopped moving forward. I was too scared to yell for the others, as the clinking drummed on faster and faster.

             Finally, I came into a huge rotunda in the center was a large rectangular sarcophagus made of stone, a long dead language was inscribed along its edge. I looked around and saw the chemlights scattered around the room, but I didn’t see anyone from Rancor squad. I ran towards the nearest chemlight, picked it up and frantically began circling the room yelling for help. That’s when I noticed the clinking sound had stopped, I turned slowly to what I believed the was the hall that came from. At the top of the steps, there was a vague silhouette of a large beast with glowing red eyes. I backed away slowly, trying to put as much distance between myself and the beast as possible. It stalked down the stairs, it had dark grey skin, horns, great talons on each foot, spines running from its head down its tail which ended in a razor-sharp point. I felt my back press against the wall and that is when the beast charged. I was preparing to force push when out of nowhere Akela swopped in and kicked the beast with both feet in the side, making it stumble. As it got back up, the others began appearing each of them striking the beast and dancing away from it before it had time to retaliate. It was then that Vin appeared next to me and said with a smile, “Go ahead, land a blow”. I looked at him half in disbelief and half in anger, as I realized that leaving me behind was all part of the plan, I was bait. I crumpled my hand into a fist readying to hit him, when I saw Oarukdakuf out of the corner of my eye, nodding her head no ever so slightly. I took a breath realizing that this wasn’t the time and instead turned my anger against whatever this beast is. I lashed out with my fists and feet striking it again and again. It felt good, however it must have disagreed as it reared up on its hind legs preparing to strike. In my fervor, I had left myself open, and now I, grandson of Darth Vader, would die in this tomb trying to prove myself to some teenage brats. Just as the beast was about to strike though it flew back landing against the tomb wall with a solid thud. I looked behind me and saw the others, standing there their hands raised; they had force pushed it, they had just saved my life! They then quickly darted across the room before the beast could get up and pinned it down. Nokrao and Ish-del held the tail down, the twins took the hind legs, and Akela with Velkav held down the forelegs. Vin calmly stood in front of the beast’s snapping jaws, before he slowly brought his foot down on its snout, closing its mouth in the process. I could see puffs of air, from the beast’s nose, as it displaced the surrounding dust. After a few minutes of tense silence and small struggles from the beast, it  eventually quit fighting. Vin in turn took his boot off the beast’s snout. “Dary nu zinot tu'iea alijansen zveris” Vin said, I had no idea what language he was speaking but it felt dark, cold, and harsh. To my surprise the beast replied, “Xaz nu zenoti tu'iea tyûk”. After that the others started letting it up, Vin held out his hand to Velkav who gave him her silver necklace. He then unlatched the silver case, revealing a very large tooth, which he used to delicately carve a diamond into the beast’s right horn, before handing the necklace back to Velkav. Oarukdakuf then approached me with a grin and said, “You survived your first sith hound, you should be proud”. I looked at her and asked, “What language was that?”. “It’s very old sith, from a time long forgotten. Basically, Vin asked it to submit and the hound in turn acknowledged Vin was stronger, thereby submitting itself to his will” she replied. It was then that Vin turned to me and said, “So you up for another round or what?”. I looked between him and the rest of the squad, they were all staring at me expectantly. I recognized this for the olive branch that it was and said, “Of course”. Akela laughed and said, “Finally we get to have some FUN” before she took off down a hallway looking for our next opponent. Oarukdakuf smiled at me, as everyone else began hurrying down the same hallway as Akela, and said, “You’re learning”. And with that she too began running down the hallway and I was quick to follow.

**[The next morning]**

**_ Vin POV:  _ **

             “Well I got to say, you handled yourself well” I told Ben with a small smile. Last night’s training exercise in the tombs really had helped unit cohesion. I had decided, under Velkav’s urging, to show Ben around the base today and we were currently walking in the archives room. It was then we happened upon Grand-master Foltes, he was an old man having lived through the rise and fall of the empire. “Grand-master” I greeted. “Ah Vin, how good it is to see you. You’ve been keeping up with your studies I hope” he asked. “Of course, Grand-master” I replied. “Who’s this?” he asked, swiveling himself towards Ben and steadying himself with his cane. “This is Ben Solo” I told him. Ben in turn shook the man’s hand and gave him a pleasant smile. “Well, Ben, you’ll come see me soon for your studies, right?” Grand-master asked, with a kind smile. “I believe I’ll be training with Vin” Ben replied. As he said this Foltes revealed his cane to actually be a lightsaber pike and brought the glowing blade within three inches of Ben’s face. Ben quivered for a moment before the Grand-master turned the blade off and said, “You’ll most certainly have to see me right away, we have a lot of work to do” and with that he put his lightsaber pike back on the ground, as if it were a cane, and began strolling down the hall. I couldn’t help but laugh at Ben’s dumbstruck face. “That man has lived through two galactic wars, he is not to be trifled with” I told him flat out. Ben looked at me and nodded. I smiled and said, “Don’t worry he has some interesting stories, he saw Count Dooku as a child, he sparred with Vader when Special Division was still in its infancy, and whole lot of other unbelievable tales. He’ll teach you a lot about lightsaber technique, and if you ask him nice he’ll teach you how to speak and read sith”. At that moment Hux approached, saying, “Vin Snoke has summoned you”.

**_ Snoke POV: _ **

             “So, captain can you please explain to me these segments in your after-action reports?” I asked, captain Fazior. He looked at the report and said, “I simply wrote down what happened sir, I don’t know anything more than that”. With this final confirmation, I knew my suspicions must be correct. I smiled at him, handing him the jedi lightsabers Vin had acquired on Tatooine and saying, “You’re dismissed, please take these to the incinerator”. With that he stood up, saluted and walked out of the room. Serendipitously as he opened the door, Vin was standing on the other side, his hand raised about to knock. “Ah, Vin please do come in” I said. He approached my desk confidently sitting down in the chair across from mine, Raz had replaced the one he crumpled up yesterday with a sturdier less-comfortable metallic chair. He sat there looking at me expectantly and I smiled saying, “Vin is there anything you would like to tell me, anything at all?” He nodded no. “What about these, after-action reports?” I asked indicating the data tablets on my desk. “Akela prefers artistic expression to words” he replied with a smirk. I slammed my hand against my desk and said, “That is not what I’m talking about”. He looked at me stunned, and I picked up one of the data tablets and tossed it into his lap. “Explain” I said.

**_ Vin POV:  _ **

             I looked down at my lap and saw portions of multiple after action reports highlighted. They were from multiple troopers in our escort but each report had identical wording, it was from those times I went off mission and then force mind-tricked the men into forgetting. I looked up at Snoke searching for any way out when he held up a plastic bag filled with Roonan lemon peels. “Can you explain why these where found in The Ravager’s trash chute?” he asked. Again, I was dumbfounded. Snoke continued to pull out evidence of all my wayward actions, all of which I thought we had safely stowed away in the ship’s hidey holes. “Can you even explain what you were doing in the tombs last night?” Snoke asked in a tone I was completely unfamiliar with. “It… it was…” I stuttered. “IT WAS WHAT?” Snoke yelled. “It was a team building exercise” I replied, regaining my composure. “And all this?” he asked, indicating the contraband and evidence showing I had repeatedly gone off mission. “We just wanted to have a bit of fun. It never hurt anything, we never exposed us or the First Order” I replied. “Vin, you realize if you simply asked for this stuff, I would have gotten it for you, right?” he asked. I nodded. “Then why would you go against protocol? Against my will?” he asked. “I never would go against your will” I replied immediately. “Clearly you did” he replied hotly. “I AM YOUR WILL” I said, just as hotly. “No, Vin you’re not. Your job is to obey” he replied simply. Crestfallen I looked to the floor and nodded. “Don’t let this happen again” he said. Again, I felt all I could do was nod, realizing I was just another game piece to be used in his aspirations. “Now, I want Ben to be co-leader of Rancor squad, do you understand?” he said. I jumped up from the chair immediately, collapsing my hand and at the same time compacting the chair into little more than garbage. I was going to scream and rant about the indignity of it, but I remembered my place and kept my mouth shut, nodding my head in the affirmative. “Good, you’re dismissed” Snoke said, with a dismissing wave to the door.       

             As I walked out I was met by captain Fazior. He apparently had been waiting for me. “Hey, sir. I thought you might want these. I know how you like them so much” he said, handing me two kyber crystals, one blue and one green. I looked at him, and for a second I could have thought he was a force-user reading my mind, as he answered my unasked question, “They’re from these” shaking the jedi lightsabers in his hand. “Thought I might as well give them to you before I took the lightsaber to the incinerator” he continued. “Thanks” I replied, sincerely. “Of course, it can be our little secret” Fazior said with a smile and wink before taking off down the hallway.

**_ Snoke POV:  _ **

             “Has project Clairvoyancy revealed anything else?” I asked. “No, my lord. We know the planet the Knights on Ren will be meeting on a month from now but nothing more” Raz replied. “Very well then, a single planet is better than nothing” I replied. Just then there was a knock at the door, I signaled for Raz to open it and a second later General Hux walked in. “Sir” he said, while saluting me as he always did. “At ease” I said. When he moved to sit down he noticed the metal wreck that used to be a chair and froze for a moment. “Vin again” I answered, his unasked questions. He smiled and said, “You couldn’t hope for a finer successor but I wouldn’t hand over control till he gets out of the moody teenage years”. ‘Successor’ I thought, I wasn’t anywhere near being done yet but already people were looking for my successor. With that in mind I replied, “Vin can’t even follow protocols, how could I consider him as a successor”. Hux smiled as if it was a joke and replied, “Vin is a teenager they act out, but he’s undisputedly loyal to you. He will always carry out your will”. Shocked I sat there for a few seconds, it was the same argument coming from one of my most trusted Generals. “Vin needs to learn his place is not to interpret but to obey my will” I replied coolly. Hux looked at me, this time he was the one stunned, before nodding and saying, “Of course Supreme Leader”. Several more seconds passed before I looked at him and asked tersely, “What is it you even came here for?” Flustered by all that had been said so far, he replied timidly, “I wanted to know if I should inform Vin about the Knights of Ren operation yet? I’m sure he’d want to increase practice drills”. “No” I replied, “I might be sending Ben in his place, at least that boy is easy to control”. He looked stunned but I had enough dealing with Vin’s stuff, so I dismissed him before he could start making a case for his friend. Perhaps if Vin can suffer being made co-leader with Ben, I’ll allow him to take the position I always promised him as my right hand.

**_ Hux POV: _ **

               I hurried along the familiar corridors of the Academy, till I came upon Vin’s room. I hurriedly knocked three times before opening the door and barging in. On the bed were Vin and Velkav playing with a baby, I’d come to know as Killian the force potential they had picked up from Tatooine. Rolf was sniffing the baby’s crib clearly interested by all the new smells it introduced. “Vin may I talk to you for a moment?” I half asked half demanded with my demeanor. Vin smiled and whispered something to Velkav then he stepped outside with me. Looking around to make sure no one was listening I leaned closer to Vin and hurriedly whispered, “Snoke is thinking of making Ben his right hand, you need to show that you can be dependable at obeying orders”. He looked at me startled but then nodded, asking “Is there anything else?” I shook my head no and departed, hoping my friend would suffer through whatever orders he had to so he could realize his dream.    

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sith Translations:  
> “Dary nu zinot tu'iea alijansen zveris”- “Do I have your allegiance beast”  
> “Xaz nu zenoti tu'iea tyûk”- “Yes I know your strength”  
> Also giving credit where credit is due, I used this site for the translations:  
> http://www.starsidergalaxy.com/sith/


	16. The Fall

**[One month later]**

**_ Snoke POV: _ **

             “Supreme Leader, have you come to a decision about who shall lead the Knights of Ren?” Raz asked. I slowly turned at my desk chair and stood up. “Not yet” I replied. He looked down at the floor, clearly wanting to speak more but he knew his place was not to question. Curious though, I asked, “What is it?” Raz let a small sigh before saying, “Sir, I know I mustn’t remind you that this opportunity does not come along often. It’s taken project Clairvoyancy years just to get us this opportunity, as such we must act quickly and decisively”. I looked at him with a smile, the man had a point, but there is one last test I must administer before I can make my decision. With that in mind, I began walking to the hangar with my entourage of sith bodyguards.

             When we arrived, I found everyone had already lined up for attendance. We had all of Rancor Squad here, along with Horvo, other senior members of Special Division and some of the top commanders from the First Order as well. General Hux was holding Rolf’s silver leash tightly. Horvo approached me first, he was holding the newest and smallest member of the Malick family in his arms. Apparently Velkav had taken quite a shine to the child, Killian, and had insisted her father adopt it or she would. “Everything is prepared, Supreme Leader” Horvo said to me, slightly bowing but still careful not to drop the baby. I nodded my head to him and proceeded to the center of the crowd, there a seat was already waiting for me. The crowd formed up behind me and took up one half of the large rectangular room, the vehicles had been moved out to make room for everyone. On the other half of the room stood the co-leaders of Rancor Squad, Vin and Ben. They stood fifteen feet apart facing each other, clearly wanting to get started. Over the past month, Ben had grown more impetuous, apparently, my sudden promotion of him was just enough to make things very interesting in Rancor Squad. He battled with Vin for control and argued the others should show him the same respect they show Vin. The others of course in solidarity with Vin, did the opposite; showing wanton disrespect and belittling him with names, ‘Little Benny Boy’ was the most popular. No matter the results of today, he’ll most likely have to be removed from the squad for his own safety, I won’t let Skywalker blood go to waste. Looking around, I knew everyone was ready and as such I began, “Today, we are gathered here to see who is the strongest? Who will win the honor of leading the Knights of Ren into battle? Who will be my right hand? Will it be Vin?” thunderous applause and cheers erupted from nearly all the spectators at this. “Or will it be Ben?” no one cheered, a few gave thumbs down, but the most boisterous insults and boos came from Akela Vale, surprised I looked to her father Mikail having thought he would have raised her better. Nevertheless, the time had come, looking to both contestants I said “Begin”. They both charged forward eager to prove their mettle in the lightsaber duel.

**[half an hour later]**

             Vin was clearly the superior fighter, that was evident within the first minute of this match. The only reason he is dragging it out longer is to showcase Ben’s weaknesses and flaws, and Vin was doing this to an amazing degree. Even the First Order officers who never wielded a lightsaber before could tell how terrible Ben was in comparison. “The choice is clear” Raz whispered by my side. He was right, Vin was the far better fighter, but I had to consider obedience as well. Ben was still eager for my approval, he would cut off a limb if I asked; Vin on the other hand was loyal beyond doubt but his previous exploits at disobeying protocol were still at the forefront of my mind and that was completely unacceptable. Still he had endured his month of co-leading with Ben admirably, but there is still one last test of obedience I must do. “Alright I’ve seen enough” I said from my chair, raising my hand to silence any murmuring of the crowd. I looked at them both, Vin was standing there perfectly normal but Ben looked like he just ran several miles, with sweat pouring off him. “Vin as always, your performance was excellent” I said, he bowed his head in acknowledgement as he also tried to hide the smirk that was growing on his face. “But Ben has advanced far beyond what I could have hoped” I continued, Vin’s head snapped back up anger plastered all over his face. “To last half an hour against you in single combat, with only a month’s worth of Special Division training behind him. Well that’s just amazing. And that is why he shall be leading the Knights of Ren” I finished, ignoring the shocked gasps of the crowd behind me and focusing solely on Vin’s expression. He was clearly angry but nevertheless he bowed his head saying, “As you wish, Supreme Leader”. That was it the last test of loyalty and obedience, Vin passed. He began walking back into the crowd and I was going to tell him right then, that it was all a test and he would be leading, but something unexpected happened.

             “I challenge Ben Solo to single combat for the right to lead the Knights of Ren” looking to the voice I saw it was none other than Velkav Malick. I never would have expected this from a Malick, that family has backed every move I made since before the Empire fell. I looked between her and Ben, and said, “I’ll allow it”. A quick look to Vin revealed his shocked face, clearly this wasn’t one of his machinations. Velkav squared up to Ben, fifteen feet of space like before. She ignited her red blade and Ben his blue, the boy still had never run the gauntlet and as such didn’t have the right to carry a red blade. “Begin” I said, and almost instantaneously Velkav had Ben on the retreat. Every stroke of her sword was masterful, she never missed a step and Ben would never be able to keep up with the onslaught. That is why it came as no surprise when forty seconds after the match began, Ben was disarmed unceremoniously with his blade flying away from him. Velkav was the clear victor, standing over him with her blade pointed at his throat, but then Ben did something against the rules of lightsaber dueling. He force pushed her, and his Skywalker blood mixed with the fear he was feeling made this push very powerful. She flew up so high I heard her back smack the hangar ceiling, while the attack was underhanded it was also impressive in magnitude. Vin burst from the crowd and force jumped to catch her before she hit the ground, landing beyond Ben near the hanger wall. Then Ben stood up, declaring, “NO ONE shall steal my birthright, I am MEANT to lead!!” he then stood there smiling at everyone, he force pulled his lightsaber to his hand before raising it in victory. That’s when Vin shot, with the model 434 heavy blaster pistol I had given him all those years ago, his aim was true and if it struck it would have burned through Ben’s heart. The following moments shocked us all, as Ben turned around sensing the blaster bolt and extended his hand rather than dodging. The bolt froze midair as if in stasis, which was a difficult force technique I hadn’t seen in a long time and Ben apparently pulled it off on instinct alone. He then brought his lightsaber up, released his hand thereby releasing the bolt, and deflected it towards the ceiling. Vin stood then, unfazed by Ben’s new found ability, and ignited his own black blade. He whispered something no one could hear. “What was that?” Ben antagonized. “I WILL KILL YOU” Vin yelled, hate clear in his voice, simultaneously the force presented so strongly in him that the ground cracked around him and the entire base felt seismic disturbances. He charged Ben, with a war cry, and the ground continued to crack under his feet with every step he took. Ben with new found confidence stood his ground, that was a mistake. As Vin neared, Ben started swinging his blade down on his head. Vin countered with a simple upward stroke but the force he put behind it uprooted Ben and sent him flying several feet back. As Ben began to get back up Vin forced pulled his lightsaber from his hand and spliced the handle in two destroying it. Ben began backing away but Vin kept up his advance. “STAND DOWN, VIN” I yelled with as much authority as I’ve ever used before, but Vin didn’t, he kept coming after Ben. With a quick look to my guards they knew what to do, they force pulled Ben closer to the crowd and then ran past him to put themselves put Vin and Ben. “Stop” I tried again but Vin was seeing red and hearing nothing as he kept coming. Raz along with my other five bodyguards ignited their lightsabers, and attacked Vin. He however had trained to be the best and that is exactly what he proved as he skillfully deflected every blade, still walking forward. I looked to one of the commanders, Fazior, and said, “Have your men set their guns to stun and fire on Vin”. He hesitated for a split second, clearly feeling some loyalty to Vin, but ultimately his loyalty to me won out. His men formed up ranks in front of Ben and took aim at Vin. Then Akela ignited her blade, looking intently at Fazior and his men. Nokrao and Horvo held her back though, I quick survey of the room revealed that many of those here felt mixed loyalties. Hux was having trouble keeping Rolf on his leash, as the massif was going crazy trying to aid Vin. Looking back to Vin I could see he was still making progress, “Take him down” I yelled. Raz and the other bodyguards jumped back, to allow the Stormtroopers a clear firing range. They fired and Vin used his lightsaber to block most of the shots. On the next volley, I ordered Raz and the others to use force lighting, hoping the combination would bring him down. However, much the amazement of everyone there despite receiving a full volley of stun blasts from over two dozen rifles and constant outpouring of force lighting sent by six highly skilled sith, Vin kept coming. I looked to other members of Special Division and ordered for them to also use whatever force powers were necessary to bring Vin down. The fight lasted longer than it should have with over two dozen full-fledged sith and over three dozen Stormtroopers using every non-lethal and semi-lethal means they had just to stop him. As I looked at Vin’s unconscious form I knew he was the strongest soldier I’ve ever had, but I also knew that I need someone dependable and obedient to head the Knights of Ren. Looking between him, the exhausted personnel who just took him down, and Ben I knew what I had to do.

**[Several days later]**

**_Vin POV:_**     

             I felt sore as I opened my eyes in an unfamiliar room. Looking around I saw the egg-white walls, the pale blue sheets on the bed beneath me much like the pale grey medical gown I was wearing, and several medical devices attached to my arm. As I began to sit up more fully the door on the left side of the room opened, and Velkav walked. When she saw that I was awake her eyes became perfectly round in surprise. Her face quickly filled with joy and she came to my side, grabbed my hand and exclaimed with a smile, “You’re okay!” I smiled back at her and said, “Of course, I’ll never leave you so long as I have a choice”. Her ardent smile and passionate eyes, showed me she felt the same… but there was something else hidden within those eyes, a flicker of something I couldn’t discern. “Velkav, what is it?” I asked, placing my other hand in hers and turning as best I could to face her without ripping the medical equipment from my arm. She looked down, her shoulders slumped and I asked her again, “What is it?” worry edging my voice. She looked back up to me calmly and said, “There is something you have to see”. With that she walked over to a small table on the left side of the room, she picked up a holodisk and a smaller projector. Her hands trembled a bit as she put the holodisk in making it a slightly harder task, but with that complete she lay the projector in my lap.

             I watched the projection, it was a ceremony of some kind. There were a lot of First Order and Special Division operatives forming up neat little lines, leading to Snoke. Then walked in men clad in metallic armor with black cloth covering any unarmored areas, they were the Knights of Ren and they looked exactly how I expected after all my years of reading about them. They were few in number, as to be expected. As the group walked down the aisle two men would stop incrementally and stand to attention, presenting their weapons. Finally, as the last two stopped and stood to attention by Snoke, Ben Solo came into view. He walked down the aisle, the Knights kneeled as he passed, until finally he came to Snoke and he himself kneeled down in front of the Supreme Leader. “Ben Solo do you swear to obey me in all things, to lead the Knights of Ren in my name, to bring death to those that would oppose us, and to not rest until ultimate victory has been achieved?” Snoke asked. I felt myself involuntarily gulp, as the holoimage continued to obliterate any doubt I had of the situation. No matter how much I wanted to look away and deny this ever happened, I couldn’t my eyes remained glued to the images. “Yes” Ben replied, with more authority and conviction I had ever heard from him before. Right then I could see it, the faint outline of Snoke trying to hold back a smile before he said, “Then rise, Kylo Ren. Master of the Knights of Ren, take this weapon” he presented Ben with a cross-guard lightsaber “and be my right hand”. I felt like I was trapped underwater with a crushing weight on me, I couldn’t breathe. As Ben, now Kylo, rose there was thunderous applause from those in attendance. I watched in a daze as Snoke walked out, followed by Kylo who was in turn followed by the Knights then the holo cut out. The brief seconds I spent in silence seemed to stretch on for an eternity, then Velkav began, “Vin…” “Bring me my clothes” I replied, icily. “Vin” she tried again, turning my face to meet hers. I looked at her, she smiled her normal cute smile, and I felt nothing. Not even she could remedy the situation and I knew that. She must have realized it too because as her eyes met mine, her hand dropped, her smile faltered, and she simply looked down, saying, “Ok”. She quickly got up and left the room, leaving me to my thoughts on how exactly I was going to get my rightful position back. Eviscerating Kylo for sure but I’ll need to get Snoke’s permission first.

             As I was trying to reason out a plan, the door to my room again opened. I was expecting Velkav but was instead surprised to find General Hux standing there. He smiled at me, silently gesturing to a chair near the right side of the bed asking if he could sit down. I nodded and he took the seat, silence stretched on a long while as he struggled to find what to say. I was tempted to simply look inside his mind and forgo this awkward wait, but I respected the General, at least enough to allow him a proper formulated response as opposed to the rudimentary building blocks in the mind. “Vin” he began, but stopped just as suddenly. He looked around the room, as if he could find what to say written on the walls or the ceiling, but what could he say in the wake of all my dreams and aspirations destruction. “I’m sorry” he mumbled. I looked at him and replied, “Don’t be it wasn’t your fault… and besides I’m going to get it all back”. He looked at me with a half-somber half-hopeful expression before saying, “I hope you do”. He got up to leave, but before he reached the door I asked, “How did Ben overcome the Knights?” He looked back at me and replied, “With a lot of help from the First Order, we lost nearly a star destroyer’s worth of men”. He then opened the door, but before walking out he added over his shoulder, “We must always refer to him as Kylo now, by Snoke’s decree” and with that he left me to my solitude. 

             With him gone I returned to my thoughts of how to oust Kylo and seize his position. I had just worked out the wording I’d use when asking for Snoke’s permission when Velkav returned. She walked over the bed quickly, dropping my boxers, combat pants, combat shirt, socks, combat boots, rancor hide trench coat, and my belt containing the Mirures Rancor’s teeth. I looked at her, about to tell her my plan when she said, “I’ll get the team ready”. “What” I asked, not following why she would. “Nothing will get in our way as long as were together” she replied, reciting that old promise we had made to each other so long ago on Feroxus. She then walked out, without another word on the matter. I smiled to myself, as I delicately detached myself from the medical machines, everyone else may have abandoned me but my squad never would, especially Velkav. Once my arm was devoid of any medical tubes and wiring, I stood up and quickly dressed. I had just snapped the lightsaber to my belt, when I heard the door open again. Looking up I saw a man clad in metallic armor, the only areas devoid of armor where his inner elbows, his eyes, and his jaw. Those, except the eyes, had been covered with a thick black cloth. “What are you doing here?” I asked. He gave no reply, only continuing his staring. He was a Knight of Ren and as he stood there he began pulling a sword from a sheath on his back, the metal scaping against the scabbard the only noise I could hear over my heartbeat. He quickly began charging across the room as fast as he could, I reacted on instinct pulling my lightsaber from my belt and preparing to see if all the legends about these guys were true. He struck out first, his blade longer than mine, making a quick slash from left to right that would have bisected me if I hadn’t blocked. As our blades connected I couldn’t help but look down at the collision, I was in awe seeing that the metal was indeed strong enough to hold up to a lightsaber. This had been a mistake though as the Knight used the opportunity to step closer, and smash one of his gauntlets across my face, sending me sprawling to the floor. Careful not to lose my bearings, as in this situation it could cost me my life, I quickly turned back to the Knight. He was advancing slowly, raising his sword as if to finish me off, like he had already won. I force pushed him as hard as I could, and he flew several feet back into the wall. I was holding him there when I heard a whirling noise, then his feet were drawn back to the ground. He had some sort of magnetic-boots, but the floor wasn’t made a metal maybe some form of reverse grav boots. My inner thoughts were cut short as he began plodding towards me, in a steady advance, despite me still force pushing him. Standing up, I switched to force lighting with my left hand while my right continued to wield my lightsaber. Much to my chagrin, the lighting had even less effect on him than the force push did as he now charged at me. He struck out in a jab with his sword, I dodged and slashed out with my own blade against his shoulder. I connected but the blade didn’t pass through the armor just as it hadn’t passed through the sword. Luckily when I dodged his sword had become lodged in the wall and I used to the extra time he spent trying to dislodge it by putting more distance between us. When the blade was freed he turned to me, his back was to the door blocking my only route of escape. Quickly I forced levitated the Mirures’ teeth in front of me, and then sent them all spiraling towards the Knight. The sharp clattering sound I heard, gave me some hope that this last-ditch offensive had worked but as the last tooth hit I saw what was left. The Knight was standing there perfectly fine, the Mirures’ teeth lay scattered at his feet shattered into tiny pieces. He began advancing towards me again, not as eager as he had the first time, carefully ensuring I wouldn’t be able to slip by him again. It was then that the doors opened and Velkav froze mid-step along with the others as they saw what was happening in the room. Wordlessly they ignited their blades and encircled the Knight.

             Now the advantage was ours, or so I thought. The Knight proved to be even greater than the legends would suggest as he skillfully dodged, parried, and countered each of our attacks as if they were coming in slow motion. Finally, I spared a side glance to Velkav and asked, “Got any ideas?” We had been avoiding voicing any plans yet, since the Knight would in all likelihood be able to hear what we said and counter accordingly, hoping instead that we would be able to defeat him with standard practice squad techniques. Velkav kept up her carefully timed attacks, as we all did trying to keep him from singling any one of us out, and replied, “Why isn’t he just focusing on killing one of us?” “Don’t give him any ideas” Akela yelled, clearly frustrated at her inability to kill the Knight. Velkav had a point though if his armor couldn’t be pierced why worry about our lightsabers. There must be a weakness in the armor, I just had to find it. “Alright, I have a plan. Velkav hold your blade against his armor for as long as you can, everyone else keep his blade occupied”. With the cooperation that only comes from years of working together, everyone began their tasks immediately. Each of us took a turn striking and occupying his blade, as Velkav snuck around his back side trying to hold her blade against a specific segment of his armor. It took a while but we eventually began to see results, as the Knights armor went from its normal color to a burning yellow. However, with a few more stokes of his sword and some maneuvering he was able to gain some distance, and his armor cooled down quickly. Glancing to my squad, a new plan formulated in my mind. “Akela, Nokrao force push. Velkav lighting. Ish-del grab his sword arm, twins hold your blades against his other arm” I yelled. With the combined efforts of Nokrao and Akela the force push sent Knight into the wall. Velkav and I both then began sending force lighting against his chest plate. Ish-del used his robotic arm to overpower the Knight and pin his sword arm in place. Then the twins brought their blades down against the Knight’s other arm, that’s when I noticed something else. The Knight in response to the twins had turned his arm over so that bottom of his arm and hand were pressed against the wall. When I heard the familiar whirling, I ordered Nokrao and Akela to also run up and help the others pin his arms back. We stayed like that for several minutes as the Knight’s armor heated up going from a dull metallic grey to glowing white hot. The others eventually had to release their hold on his arms as the armor conducted the heat to them, but when they were forced to let go they brought their lightsabers down in intersecting patterns. Velkav and I tossed our lightsabers to our comrades so they too could be used to restrict the Knight’s movements. Even if we couldn’t cut through the armor we could still pin him down, it was like an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. Neither could overcome the other, and he remained pinned as Velkav and I unleashed the full force of our lighting no longer afraid of hitting the others as they backed away from the Knight. We didn’t stop even when smoke started emanating from the suit, nor when we could smell roasting meat; no, we only stopped when Horvo walked in. Horvo looked between me and the others, then the Knight. “What have you done?” he asked. “He was trying to kill Vin, it was what needed to be done” Velkav answered, resolutely before the rest of us. Horvo looked to her and then again to me, before nodding. He then walked over to the Knight, the armor already cooled down significantly, there must be some internal mechanism doing it I thought to myself. He grabbed the bed sheet, covering his hands slightly to protect from the residual heat as he tried to pull of the helmet. It was stuck on though, and it was only with great force that he was able to pull it off; most of the Knight’s face coming with it as the skin had melted into it. Even for us veterans of combat it was tough sight to see. As he rose back up Horvo looked to me, lost for words. So, I took initiative, asking “Where’s Snoke?”            

**_ Snoke POV: _ **

             I was sitting in my office reviewing the recent in-depth analysis of the fighting strength the Knights of Ren possessed. They were extremely skilled warriors, stronger than most Special Division operatives, and as such I knew they’d prove useful. That’s when I heard the door open, no knock meant it was Vin. “Where is he?” I heard, him say pure hatred lacing his tone. “You’ll never see, Kylo again. At least not until I’m sure you’ll behave” I replied calmly, not looking up from my desk still absorbed in the reports. That’s when Vin threw something heavy and metallic onto my desk, I heard it thump before I saw it. Looking at it, I saw it was the helmet belong to one of the Knights of Ren. I picked it up slowly, that’s when I noticed the acrid smell as well as bits of charred flesh slopping out of the helmet and landing on the desk. Looking to Vin, I snarled, “What is this?” He had the nerve to smile at me, before replying, “Kylo wants me dead, so I see no reason why we couldn’t settle it face-to-face. Now. Where. Is. He?” His voice was carefully controlled now, but his body still shook with anger. “Get out” I told him. He looked defiant for a moment, his hands clenching and unclenching several times. My guard began unclipping their lightsabers from their belts. “Fine” he replied curtly. “If Kylo wants me dead he can try and when he runs out of Knights well then I guess he’ll have to come for me himself” he said with a smirk before walking out.

             As the doors closed behind him, Raz spoke, “Sir, you know I’m charged with securing your well-being and your interests”. I nodded. He continued, “Vin cannot remain here”. I looked to him, wondering what his reasoning was. Accepting my nonverbal cues, he explained, “Kylo wants Vin dead and he’ll keep sending Knights to do it, and chances are Vin will kill every last one of them. If somehow Vin dies though well then members of Special Division as well as some members of the First Order officer core may seek retribution. After all, before Kylo, Vin was the heir apparent and had managed to gain quite the following, as you undoubtedly saw during his fight with Kylo”. Again, I nodded, remembering those who had stood conflicted when receiving orders to stop Vin. “More importantly” he continued, “Vin wants Kylo dead, and will make that want a reality whenever he sees him next. Given the strength Vin showed in his last fight, well if you were to deny him that and he was to turn his anger against you. I’m afraid we couldn’t stop him and others may even join him. It could be civil war”. I looked to him stunned that this possibility had never crossed my mind and asked “So what would you have me do, kill him? Let him kill Kylo?” “No sir” he replied, “you’ve decided Kylo should be your right hand and as such I will protect him with my life if that is what you want. As for killing Vin, I’m unsure of how many men it would take and if anyone sided with him well then it would again be a civil war. No sir I ask you quadruple your personal security detail and that we send Vin away immediately on mission”. I looked to him and asked, “And what do you expect that to accomplish? When Vin comes back from wherever I send him we’ll still be faced with the same problem”. He smiled and said, “It will eliminate the possibility of our forces fracturing into two sides entirely. Because Vin won’t ever come back from this assignment”.  Leaning forward I replied, “I’m listening”

**_ Vin POV: _ **

             “We’ll find a way” Velkav said, her arms encircling me in a tight hug. “We’ll talk to everyone, figure out where he is and then go from there. Don’t worry Vin, you and me that’s all we need get this done” she continued. I smiled at her, knowing that she meant every word. “Vin, Snoke wishes to speak to you” Raz said, from behind me. I looked at him with a hard glare and challenged, “What if I don’t want to talk to him?”. Raz stood there, hand hovering over his lightsaber, before he said, “Trust me, it’s something you’ll want to hear”. So, with a sigh I followed Raz back down the hallway toward Snoke’s office. As I pushed open the doors I immediately looked to Snoke’s chair, there he sat with a friendly smile. “Little one, I’ve thought about how all this must be for you” he started off, his tone that fatherly one I had grown to love over the years. I stood in front of him, arms crossed, asking, “And?” “Well I’ve decided that you should have a way to become leader of the Knights of Ren after all” he replied. Intrigued I couldn’t keep the eagerness out of my voice as I asked, “How?” He smiled then, leaned back farther into his chair and rapped his fingers against his desk as he answered, “Simple all you have to do is track down Luke Skywalker and bring me his head”. I smiled, got up to leave and said over my shoulder, “Consider it done. Please let Hux know and I’ll go inform my squad”. “Not so fast, Little one.” he said, “You’ll have to do this mission alone. No First Order or Special Division operatives may go with you, we can’t risk exposure of our organization now that all that we’ve worked for is coming together”. I turned to him and asked, “How then do you expect me to complete this mission?” With a smile, he said, “You’ll take The Ravager alone, how you complete it is not my concern. Just so long as the First Order and Special Division remain anonymous”. I nodded, “Very well then I’ll leave at once”. “Good good, one last thing though. Don’t comeback till it’s done” he said. I hesitated a moment at that, but seeing no other way I nodded, before walking out of the room.

**_ Snoke POV: _ **

             “Are you sure he won’t find him?” I asked Raz. “Yes, my lord. If Clairvoyancy can’t find him, then Vin certainly can’t. Even so it would be wise to continue the search for Luke on our own, with the First Order resources behind us we should be able to find him before Vin. Then if we take him out without letting Vin know, well he’ll never be able to come back” Raz replied with a smile. It was a good plan, in the fact that even if it failed it would still work out well for us, since Luke would be dead. “Is the beacon secured” I asked. Raz nodded and with that final assurance I went back to looking over reports and data logs, planning out my new stratagem which no longer could rely on Vin.     

**_ Vin POV:  _ **

**[Two hours later]**

             “Come on sir. We’ll talk to Snoke, convince him to let us come along. We’re volunteering” Fazior beseeched me, standing in front of nearly thirty other dark troopers. We were standing in the hangar, The Ravager had been stocked up and I was getting ready to go, just saying my final goodbyes. “Snoke was very clear” I replied. “You could requisition us, we’ll say you used your force mind tricks. Snoke won’t care once you bring back Luke’s head” he said. I smiled at him, pulled him into a hug and said, “Thank you, you’re a good friend but no I must do this on my own. I can’t give Snoke a way to renegotiate our deal once I return, this might be my only shot at leading the Knights”. He looked conflicted but accepted it, asking, “You at least have a plan, right?” I laughed, replying, “Of course. Remember the data we pulled off those ships on Tatooine” he nodded. “Well one of the files said a lone padawan had been sent to Ilum to construct his lightsaber. Making him the last surviving member of Luke’s Jedi training program. I figure he’ll probably be my best chance at finding his master” I said with a smile. Fazior nodded and said, “You’re probably right. But I want you to promise to do something”. He looked expectantly at me. “I’m not promising till you tell me what it is” I said. “It’ll keep you alive” he said vaguely. Just as I was about to reply Velkav walked up and said, “He’ll do it. Right Vin?” I couldn’t help but smile at her and unthinkingly said, “Of course”. “Good” Fazior said, “Vin you’re going to have to put together a team. You’ll need some muscle to help when the situation gets out of hand. A medic to patch up your wounds, bacta won’t fix everything. An explosives expert, a mechanic, and a technical support would also come in handy”. I looked to him ready to argue that I didn’t in fact need anyone to help me but out of respect for him and our friendship I kept my mouth shut. With one final farewell Fazior and his men walked off. I then turned to Velkav, she was smiling at me. “You know I could just stow away on the ship right, Snoke doesn’t have to know” she said, half-jokingly. I smiled at her, saying, “I’ll be back before you know it”. I pulled her close to me and kissed her, a lackadaisical ordinary kiss hoping to stem both our fears that this assignment would be a long one. When my lips pulled back from hers, she kept her forehead against mine whispering, “Please come back to me”. I pulled her body closer to mine, not leaving an inch of room between us before saying, “You remember that station we used to launch our operation on Coruscant a while back”. “The one where we killed that Senator” she asked. “Yeah that the one” I said, “If in four months I haven’t come back, meet me there”. She looked at me, still wrapped up tightly in my arms, and nodded. “Good because if you don’t I’ll have to come back here and get you myself” I said, kissing her cheek as she laughed. With our fears dispelled we untangled from one another’s embrace and I said goodbye to the rest of Rancor Squad and Special Division. I then walked up the ramp of my ship, Rolf trotting up alongside me. And with no great urgency or grandiose words of farewell, I piloted the ship out of the hangar and into the upper layers of the atmosphere. With my plan in mind I set the hyperspace coordinates and thus began my hunt for Luke Skywalker, my last shot at getting everything I wanted.


End file.
